“If there are sweeping cultural changes required in Sydney then there are questions around what is going on in this company across the country. Victorian and Western Australian regulators need to take this very seriously.
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“This also goes to the heart of why we need a national independent regulator as so many states rely heavily on the income gambling generates.
“We need to know what’s going on in Perth and Melbourne.”
Mr Wilkie called on the WA and Victorian premiers to suspend Crown’s licenses in their respective states and establish inquiries to “get to the bottom of what is now a genuinely national issue”.
A spokesman from the Gaming and Wagering Commission, which regulates WA’s gambling establishments, refused to make any comment about the report’s findings.
He said the commission would consider the report at its upcoming meeting on February 23.
A WA government spokeswoman repeated the commission’s comments.
Red flags ignored by Crown Perth
The Bergin Inquiry was sparked by investigations by The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes in July 2019 into whether money-laundering was taking place through Crown’s casinos and whether the casinos were partnering with junket operators with international crime links.
Tuesday’s report lashed Crown Perth for doing nothing about suspicious transactions under the mandatory reporting limit being made into an ANZ account managed by subsidiary Riverbank Investments for high-rollers in 2014.
In January 2014, ANZ contacted Crown with concerns over a series of suspicious deposits of cash amounts of about $8000 to $9000 on the same day by the same person at different Perth branches.
The report said ANZ was referring to “structuring” in the accounts, which was a “concerning and serious indicia of money laundering.”
“Despite being made aware of ANZ’s concerns on 31 January 2014, and of the particular transactions ANZ identified in the spreadsheet, it appears that no one at Crown took any steps to review the balance of the bank statements of Riverbank’s ANZ account,” the report said.
“Had this been done, it would have been evident that structuring had not only occurred in January 2014 but that the accounts up until that time were riddled with examples of the same thing.
“The bank statements from this time until the accounts were closed, continue to show evidence of structuring of cash deposits with 61 further cash deposits indicative of structuring being made after 31 January 2014.”
Calls to end Crown donations
WA Greens MP and gambling spokeswoman Alison Xamon called on the major parties to refuse any future donations from Crown in light of the report.
“The Greens have long argued that any entity with gambling interests should not be donating to governments but in particular, in light of the recommendations from this inquiry I would expect to see all parties undertake they will not accept a donation from Crown,” she said.
According to Australian Electoral Commission figures, WA’s major parties accepted a collective $88,000 from Crown in 2019-20.
WA Labor secretary Tim Picton said all donations to the party were disclosed in line with legislative requirements and available on public registers.
WA Liberal secretary Sam Calabrese was contacted for comment.
Hamish Hastie is WAtoday’s political reporter.
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