Summary
- Royal Commission to present report on Crown Perth investigation next month
- Premier Mark McGowan could make a decision to revoke casino license
- Premier unlikely to suspend license due to present conditions
Crown Resorts went under investigation in New South Wales (NSW) and had its casino license suspended, it’s flagship Crown Melbourne casino was investigated in Victoria and the Royal Commission voted for its license to be cancelled but Crown Melbourne got a lucky break and was allowed to continue to operate under the supervision of an administrator.
Crown Perth Report Due In March
The investigation into Crown Resort’s operations in NSW and Victoria and the findings prompted Western Australia (WA) to launch its own investigation into Crown Perth. The findings so far have not been good for Crown Resorts as the Royal Commission is now in its final stage of the investigation.
The Royal Commission is expected to wrap up the investigation in March and present its findings and recommendations to WA Premier Mark McGowan. It will be up to the Premier and Governor Kim Beazley to go through the report and recommendations of the Royal Commission and then make a decision on Crown Perth.
Given the seriousness of the findings and the recommendations of the Royal Commission, there is a possibility that they could push for Crown Perth to have its license suspended.
Premier Unlikely To Suspended Crown Perth License
We don’t think that the final outcome will be the recommendation to suspend Crown Perth’s license but even if the Royal Commission did make this recommendation, we don’t think that Premier McGowan will follow through and suspend Crown Perth’s license. There are a few reasons why we don’t think the Premier will suspend the license for Crown Perth.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a lot of problems in WA as the Premier decided to shut the borders for an extended period of time, a lot longer than some of the other states in Australia. This is one reason why a lot of Western Australians are unhappy with the way the Premier has handled the situation and boxed them in. Premier McGowan does not have the highest rating in WA at the moment and his decision to suspend Crown Perth’s license could also backfire and bring his rating further down.
The second reason we believe that the Premier will not suspended the gaming license is because Crown Perth employs hundreds of employees and is a big tax payer in the state. Premier McGowan does not want to take a hit in his tax budget or cause hundreds of employees to be sacked at this point in time.