Guy Jalland tells a NSW inquiry the company has paused its dealings with 100-odd partners who bring high rollers from Asia. A New South Wales inquiry into Crown Resorts and its casino licence has heard that Crown has suspended dealings with the 100-odd junket operators who bring high rollers from Asia and is conducting reviews of possible criminal links.
Director Guy Jalland agreed that the pause had been mainly prompted by Covid-19 and travel restrictions and that Crown had not notified the junket partners they were suspended and under review.
“Doesn’t that make the suspensions rather hollow?” the counsel assisting, Naomi Sharp SC, asked on Wednesday. In response, Jalland insisted that the suspensions were real and that reviews were now under way.
The inquiry by the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority, which is being chaired by Particia Bergin SC, a former NSW supreme court judge, is considering whether Crown remains suitable to hold the Sydney casino licence at Barangaroo.
It is investigating allegations made by the Nine Network last year that Crown turned a blind eye to money laundering at its Melbourne and Perth casinos and that it did not investigate the criminal links of its junket operators, which often share in the profits of gaming in private rooms they operate within casinos.
