Crown Perth Gains Critical Suitable Finding to Retain Casino License in Western Australia
Posted on: July 9, 2025, 07:59h.
Last updated on: July 9, 2025, 09:49h.
- Crown Resorts once again has full control of its Perth casino
- Crown Perth was deemed suitable to hold a casino license in Western Australia
- Blackstone owns Crown Resorts, the largest gaming firm Down Under
Crown Perth has been found suitable to maintain a casino license in Western Australia after years of remedial efforts to come into regulatory compliance.
On Tuesday, Western Australia’s Gaming and Wagering Commission (GWC) recommended that the Burswood resort casino complex retain its gaming license. The state gaming agency reached its opinion after determining that the casino and its parent company, Crown Resorts, have undergone significant corporate governance upgrades since being deemed unsuitable three years ago.
In 2022, Crown Perth, following similar inquiry findings a year earlier regarding Crown Sydney and Crown Melbourne, was ruled unqualified to conduct casino games.
The Western Australia inquiry reached parallel conclusions to probes in New South Wales and Victoria that said Crown Perth wasn’t fit to hold a casino license because it facilitated money laundering, allowed criminal junkets to operate at the property, and failed to address gambling harms.
Remedial Efforts Satisfy
The condemning inquiries put the future of Crown Resorts, Australia’s largest casino operator in the country’s gaming duopoly with Star Entertainment, in limbo. US-based private equity giant Blackstone swooped in to acquire Crown, paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, and invested heavily in upgrading the company’s governance and culture.
Blackstone’s $6.6 billion rescue will likely pay off for the firm that additionally owns Spanish gambling outfit Cirsa and several casino real estate assets on the Las Vegas Strip, including the Bellagio and The Cosmopolitan. Crown Melbourne and Crown Sydney’s casino licenses were reinstated last year. Now, Crown Perth is back in compliance.
It has been determined that Crown Perth has been overhauled through a refreshed corporate and governance structure, enhanced employee screening, and training models to promote ethical behaviors as well as actions to minimize gambling harm,” said Racing and Gaming Minister Paul Papalia. “Most importantly, Crown Perth has implemented adequate and legislatively compliant anti-money laundering/counter-terrorism financing measures to prevent criminal infiltration at the Perth Casino such as transaction monitoring and technology to flag suspicious patrons with cash above certain thresholds.”
Crown Perth isn’t fully in the clear, as the GWC says Paul Steel, the independent monitor who has overseen the casino since 2022, will continue to have access to the property “to ensure lawful and responsible operations.” However, Crown Resorts once again has full control of the Crown Perth business.
Perth Avoids Fines
Unlike Crown Sydney and Crown Melbourne, which were hit with almost half a billion dollars in fines for their regulatory failures, the Western Australia Royal Commission did not impose a financial penalty on Crown Perth.
There was never any evidence of direct money laundering activity of the nature that you witnessed in Melbourne,” explained Papalia. “There was potential for money laundering … and potential for counter terrorism or terrorism finances to have been transacted, but there was no evidence of those crimes having been committed.”
Crown Resorts was controlled by Aussie billionaire James Packer until 2018 when he resigned amid mental health struggles and a messy split from Mariah Carey. During the regulatory scrutiny, Packer was forced to sell his remaining 37% stake in the organization to satisfy the Blackstone acquisition.
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