Australian Authorities impose millions penalty on Crown Resorts

Once again there are bad news for the casino operator Crown Resorts. The Gambling Authority of the Australian Federal State of Victoria has imposed a two -digit-million fine on the company because of illegal financial transactions. But what is the company which is based in Melbourne in Australia being accused of?

As it was announced a few days ago, the Australian casino group had to pay a record fine amounting to an unbelievable 80 million AUD for the fact that the same company was involved in illegal financial transactions. Recently the multi-billion casino group was increasingly in the negative headlines. Last year we had already reported about a multibillion money laundering case in the Crown Casino Melbourne.

The Gambling Authority of Victoria demands the sum of more than 50 million Euro

The responsible Gambling Authority of the Australian Federal State Victoria, VCGLR, has imposed the fine on the gambling group. According to the current rate of exchange the 80 million fine comes up to around 54.09 million Euro. The Australian authorities considered it proven, that the company has given Chinese players the opportunity to illegally access the balance on the respective Chinese debit cards. According to the applicable rules, such a procedure is not legal. 

During the timeframe between 2012 and 2016 around million AUD were transferred illegally in this way. Meanwhile Crown Resorts managed to generate a revenue of more than 32 million AUD. The gambling authority is convinced that the responsible manager of Crown Resorts was aware of these proceedings, and thus was consciously infringing the regulations.

Why is the fine so high?

The managing director of the VCGLR emphasised in her statement that they wanted to ensure that in this case Crown Resorts would not benefit in any way from the illegal financial transactions. It is for this reason that they decided to impose such a high fine. It is interesting to note in this case that it was just a few weeks ago that the government of Victoria had decided to make the laws stricter. Till now the maximum fine for severe infringement had “only” amounted to one million AUD. Since a few weeks fines amounting up to 100 million AUD may be imposed for serious infringements of the Casino Control Act.

Besides this, one has to consider the shocking effect which the 80-million-fine will have on other gambling companies. Just last March we had reported about the fact, that the Financial giant Blackstone has bought Crown Resorts.

Conclusion

Most recently Crown Resorts was once again the subject of criticism. Now the casino operator must allocate more than 54 million Euro to pay the fine imposed by the gambling authority of Victoria. The company’s shares however do not seem to be affected much by the announcement and only went down slightly. Experts had previously already anticipated such a severe penalty.

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