Media release – Independent Member for Clark, Andrew Wilkie, 9 February 2021
CROWN NOT FIT TO OPERATE ANY CASINO IN AUSTRALIA
Independent Member for Clark, Andrew Wilkie, has applauded the recommendation by a NSW inquiry to deny Crown a gaming licence for its $2.2 billion Barangaroo casino.
Commissioner Patricia Bergin today ruled the gaming giant is not ‘a suitable person’ to hold a Sydney casino licence after an 18-month inquiry that exposed shocking allegations, including long-running links with organised crime.
“Finally it’s official,” Mr Wilkie said. “Since 2017 I’ve been revealing evidence of serious criminal misconduct at Crown Casino, and this afternoon Commissioner Bergin has found that indeed Crown is not fit and proper to operate a casino in Sydney.
“This is a remarkable development in itself. But equally important are the implications for Crown’s casinos in Melbourne and Perth. Surely it’s self-evident that Commissioner Bergin’s findings mean the company is unfit to continue to operate any casino in Australia.
“To that end I call upon the premiers of Victoria and Western Australia to suspend Crown’s casino licences in their jurisdictions, and to immediately establish commissions of inquiry to get to the bottom of what is now a genuinely national issue.
“I also call on the Prime Minister to revisit my repeated calls in the Federal Parliament for a Royal Commission into the casino industry. These have so far been blocked by both the Government and the Opposition, and the question hangs heavy in the air ‘What have they got to hide?’
