Crown Casino Denies Claim of Slot Machine Tampering

The Crown Casino in Melbourne is facing disciplinary action that could lead to the suspension of its gaming license following evidence tabled by MP Andrew Wilkie in the federal parliament related to illicit practices in Australia’s slot machine market. As a spokeswoman for the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) stated on March 5th:
“The commission has commenced disciplinary proceedings against the casino operator. These proceedings relate to the use of blanking of buttons on certain electronic gaming machines on the casino floor.”
The Crown Melbourne is the country’s largest casino, and boasts 2,628 gaming machines and 540 table games, but last October three of its former employees alleged that the venue had removed three betting options from its contingent of slot machines, known as pokies.
Nevertheless, Crown is claiming that the changes apply to just to 17 of its machines, and merely as part of a three-week experiment. The casino is also disputing that it breached the Gambling Regulation Act, and needed to seek prior approval before conducting the trial.
In the meantime, a litany of other accusations have also been made against Crown Casino, including undermining government anti-money-laundering efforts by using the ID cards of different players when processing transactions over $10,000, as well as allowing drug use at the venue, and ignoring obvious signs of problem gambling at its pokie machines.
The main investigation being conducted involves the alleged pokies tampering incident, though, and as Wilkie explained in a recent statement:
“The casino obviously has a case to answer about the blanking of buttons, and I’m sure that the truth will come out when the commission finalizes its inquiries.”
Poker fans will know of the Crown Casino from the highly popular Aussie Millions series which takes place at the venue at the beginning of each year. In total, 7,746 poker players attended the 2018 Aussie Millions between January 17th and February 5th, with its $10,600 Main Event subsequently attracting a record 800 players, and eventually won by Toby Lewis for US$1,178,198.