Author: Daniel Williams

The Attorney-General of Queensland has urged anyone concerned about Star Entertainment to refer them to an investigation after a number of media reports linked a major shareholder of the Australian gambling giant’s Brisbane casino development with figures from Chinese criminal organisations. As Casino Guardian already revealed, the company has been under intense scrutiny after facing some allegations of links to organised crime and allowing money laundering in a recent New South Wales (NSW) inquiry into its casino in Sydney. On the other hand, the Australian gambling giant is facing a…

ClubsACT made a proposal that could soon provide problem gamblers with the chance to opt-in to having their faces scanned by special facial recognition software that would help the establishments keep them out of Canberra clubs. The proposed measure would see a number of venues trial a system developed by COMS Systems Limited, a company based in New Zealand. The technology used by the system alerts venues’ staff about patrons who have included themselves in a self-exclusion database in case they enter the gambling or poker machine area of a…

Queensland’s gambling sector reported a 16% month-over-month increase in the monthly gross gambling revenue (GGR) in July. The gambling activity in the Australian state eventually resulted in an overall gross gambling revenue of AU$62 million in July, representing a 32% improvement over the result registered in July 2021, apart from the 16% increase from the results in June 2022. The registered improvement comes at a time when all sectors of the country’s economy have been trying to rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic and the closures that were associated with it.…

For the time being, the so-called high-roller rooms in the Crown casino are the only enclosed venues in the state of Victoria where in-door smoking is allowed. However, cancer experts have called for state politicians to make a move and ban the long-standing exemption of the casino from second-hand smoke laws. After the findings of the Royal Commissioner Finkelstein’s investigation into Crown Resorts were officially made public, earlier this month, local lawmakers introduced a piece of legislation aimed at tackling money laundering activities at the venue, as well as gambling-related…

Peter Costello and James Chessell, executives at Nine Entertainment, turned down accusations that were made in an email correspondence of the former executive chairman and major investor of Crown Resorts, James Packer, and leaked after a joint investigation piece of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and 60 Minutes unveiling money laundering and other failures of the Australian gambling giant’s casinos. As reported by the Australian Financial Review, in the series of emails sent in June and July by Mr Packer to executives for Nine Entertainment and some journalists, the…

A new Westminster scandal including a Nationalist Member of Parliament might be unfolding as an investigation for “freebies” from questionable sources was just published by a Scottish newspaper. Dr Lisa Cameron, the Scottish National Party MP for East Kilbride, Strathaven, and Lesmahagow, reportedly accepted more than £44,000 worth of free trips from a gambling company, tax havens, and even dictatorships. The news report in the Sunday Mail details Dr. Cameron’s international travels over the past seven years, as well as various other freebies she received as a member of more…

Casino gaming regulation underwent a massive overhaul in New South Wales after the state government passed the Casino Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 into law. The newly approved legislation creates a new regulatory body, the NSW Independent Casino Commission (NICC), whose task is to oversee the landbased casino sector. More specifically, the new regulator will supervise Crown Resorts and The Star Entertainment Group. The two landbased operators were involved in a series of major scandals regarding their operations. They will now attempt to recover their reputation under the guidance of the…

Birmingham-based pro football club Aston Villa unveiled it has selected the online gambling brand Duelbits as its official betting partner in Europe for the 2022/2023 season. Duelbits is a cryptocurrency-focused site that provides casino gaming and sports betting services under a licence issued by the authorities of the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao. The brand has obtained permission from the British gambling watchdog (UKGC) for the launch of a white label site that is yet to go live in the UK. The white label licence is held by the Isle…

The Gaming Minister of Australia’s Northern Territory has been criticised for his lack of decisiveness over the proposed rollout of a large number of new poker machines in Alice Springs. Iris Capital, a local hospitality giant, has applied for 60 new poker machines, asking the competent authorities for permission to install them in hotels and pubs across the town, including in a number of venues where there were previously no pokies available. According to preliminary projections, the poker machines would add to over 100 new gaming machines that the company…

Anti-gambling campaigners claim that poker machines are a dangerous product, such as firearms and drugs, as gambling losses after the pandemic have reached record levels in Queensland. According to the latest reports, the residents of Queensland spent AU$4.2 billion on gambling in the financial year that ended in May 2022. Pokies at local pubs and clubs accounted for more than 50% of that amount, with AU$2.8 billion spent by state gamblers in the 12 months to June 2022. Now, gambling reform advocates fear that the existing economic uncertainty is going…