NSW gambling regulator Phil Crawford.Credit:Wolter Peeters
Back then it looked like Crown NSW’s path to probity was clear and ILGA seemed confident that within months Crown would have addressed the myriad issues thrown up by the regulator’s inquiry under Patricia Bergin.
ILGA was hopeful its reform agenda would usher in Crown 2.0 - a rehabilitated casino operator that had overhauled its board,its senior management,its anti-money laundering practices and had diluted the influence of its largest shareholder,James Packer.
It is difficult to see how the new-new Crown could retain its current chairman and long standing director Helen Coonan in its board line-up. At the very least its path to rehabilitation should include a path to Coonan’s retirement.
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But while ILGA is quietly chipping away at its to-do list,Victoria is exploding with evidence of Crown’s shortcomings. And the noise is sufficiently deafening that it cannot be ignored by Crawford who must be alive to the public relations consequences of green lighting a licence to Crown as it gets pummelled with fresh salvos.
The Victorian royal commission has highlighted that some of those big ticket items that NSW dealt with are low-hanging fruit.
Crown’s cultural cancer runs deeper than its top layer of executives or its board.