Crown Melbourne to Implement Carded Play and Spend Limits by December

Crown Melbourne, one of the top land-based casinos in Australia, has been ordered by the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission to implement several anti-money laundering measures and player protection methods until the end of 2023.

The casino regulator in Victoria has required the company to implement mandatory carded play on all electronic gaming machines, along with mandatory time and spend limits for players.

The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission explained that mandatory carded play for all individuals is an essential anti-money laundering measure, which would allow all activity at an electronic gaming machine to be linked with a player’s identity.

Moreover, all casino customers will have to set their own time and spend limits before actually engaging in gambling, using the YourPlay system which is available in the state of Victoria. However, the system remains voluntary at other venues while Crown Melbourne will have to make it mandatory. This means that patrons will not be able to play at all once their pre-established limits have been reached.

The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission did acknowledge that Crown Melbourne has taken its own harm minimization and anti-money laundering measures, beyond the recommendations of the state regulator.

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Moreover, the new set of measures will remove all “unrestricted” electronic gaming machines from the main gaming floor Crown Melbourne, machines where spin rate, bet limit and auto play didn’t have any restrictions.

Such machines will only be available in high-roller areas, but the continuous play function will be removed from these as well, so a player won’t be able to hold down the button for faster gameplay. The regulator has also set a maximum amount of money that can be loaded into an electronic gaming machine at any one time: one thousand Australian dollars.

Fran Thorn, the Chairperson of the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission declared that the regulator was “pleased” to see Crown Melbourne implement additional measures “to improve the safety and integrity of gaming at the Melbourne casino.” The regulator’s representative added that the actual implementation of these measures will be “carefully” monitored.

Crown Melbourne recently received a fine of 30 million Australian dollars from the state regulator after it found that the casino had engaged in a “blank cheque practice”, which allowed casino patrons to gamble by depositing blank cheques made out to themselves and not to Crown. Those patrons were allowed to use those funds for gambling even before the respective cheques had cleared. That fine took the total amount Crown Melbourne has been fined over the past year to 230 million Australian dollars.

Source:

, asgam.com, May 4, 2023.