2024 Crown Sydney suitability assessment
The NICC has found Crown Sydney suitable to give effect to its casino licence after nearly three years of intensive remediation.
Crown was given a restricted gaming facility licence in 2014. It anticipated opening its Barangaroo casino in 2019, but this was delayed due to mounting concerns over its suitability. These concerns came to a head, and the Bergin Inquiry was commissioned in 2019. When it concluded Crown Sydney was deemed unsuitable to hold a casino licence in NSW. Crown began wholesale remediation and in June 2022, the NSW Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority, the NSW Government, and Crown’s various holding entities, executed the Pathway to Suitability Deed (PTS Deed) which enabled Crown to start gaming operations on a conditional basis. The PTS Deed specified three steps to suitability and imposed rights and obligations on the parties during the conditional gaming period (CGP). The CGP end date was set at 31 December 2023 and was later extended to 30 April 2024.
Suitability framework
Towards the end of 2023, the NICC developed a framework to determine Crown’s suitability. The framework provides for an assessment of Crown’s suitability against the objects of the Act, the three steps outlined in the PTS Deed, and other relevant criteria.
PTS Deed three steps
- During the CGP, Crown Sydney operates the casino to the satisfaction of the NICC and in compliance with its amended licence, the Internal Control Manuals (ICMs), the Act, and the terms of the PTS Deed.
- Crown Resorts and Crown Sydney implement the Agreed Remediation Action Plan to the satisfaction of the NICC before the end of the CGP.
- The Crown parties and the NICC (with the approval of the Minister) enter into a new Section 142 agreement between the NICC, the state, and other relevant parties, before the end of the CGP, and amend the regulatory agreements to take effect from the end of the CGP, also on terms satisfactory to the NICC.
Objects of the Act
Object 1: Ensuring that the management and operation of the casino remains free from criminal influence or exploitation.
Object 2: Ensuring that the casino operator prevents money laundering and terrorism financing activities within the operations of the casino.
Object 3: Ensuring that gaming in the casino is conducted honestly.
Object 4: Containing and controlling the potential of a casino to cause harm to the public interest and to individuals and families.
Other criteria
In addition to the steps in the PTS Deed and the objects of the Act, the NICC made assessments against criteria specifically called out in the Act as well as interdependent criteria identified by Kroll Australia – the independent monitor.
The NICC undertook consultation with key stakeholders and the casino operator, considering and incorporating these responses into its final decision.
The NICC's decision
The NICC is satisfied, having regard to the primary objects set out in section 4A of the Act, the objects of the NICC set out in section 140 of the Act, and the matters set out in sections 4B and 13A of the Act, that Crown Sydney is a suitable person to give effect to its licence and the Act and that Crown Resorts is suitable to be a close associate of Crown Sydney.
The Crown Sydney and Crown Resorts which exist today have changed following the findings of the Bergin Inquiry, the Victorian Royal Commission into the Casino Operator and Licence and the Perth Casino Royal Commission. Crown Sydney has worked hard to transform its business and compliance capabilities before being permitted to open. It has done so under close regulatory scrutiny and is controlling risk appropriately.
Crown Resorts has achieved significant milestones, reforming its operations, its governance, and its compliance and risk functions. In addition, Crown Resorts has demonstrated that it has worked hard to respond to the Bergin Inquiry in other meaningful ways such as building a culture of transparency and accountability across its integrated resort. This has given the NICC confidence that Crown Resorts has sufficiently reformed its business model and Crown Sydney can meet its statutory and regulatory obligations now and into the future.
Read the full decision
Crown Restricted Gaming Licence and regulatory agreements - April 2024
More information
Read the media release.
Find out more about the Bergin Inquiry.
View all casino licences and regulatory agreements.