Key Takeaways
Billionaire Crown Resorts founder James Packer says the allegations being levied against his company under parliamentary privilege by Australian federal lawmaker Andrew Wilkie are a lie.
An investigation is opening into whether Crown Resorts employees tampered with slot machines, but the company s largest shareholder, billionaire James Packer, says it s all one big lie. (Image: Alejandro Kirchuk/The Australian)Last week, Wilkie, an anti-slot machine activist, said three whistleblowers who previously worked at Crown Resorts Melbourne casino informed him that the company to alter them in the house s favor. Down Under, slot machines are more commonly referred to as pokies or poker machines.
Wilkie runs PokieLeaks.org, a group dedicated to exposing the so-called dirty tricks this industry routinely uses, so says its website.
The allegations claim that Crown employees were directed to disable certain betting options on the devices, and enable others that tricked gamblers into placing continual wagers. The anonymous whistleblowers also assert that cashiers were encouraged to use multiple player identification cards when cashing out last sums in order to evade anti-money laundering filing requirements mandated by the Australian Government.
Wilkie s bombshell couldn t have come at a worse time. Crown is holding its annual general meeting this week in Melbourne before investors. That s where .
Maybe because we re a bigger company or maybe because we re more well known or maybe even because I m more well known, Andrew Wilkie throws something into parliament which is a lie, which gets a lot of headlines, Packer declared.
Investors ReturnThe slot tampering allegations follow a public scandal that put 17 Crown employees in Chinese prison for almost eight months. Charged and held on gambling crimes for marketing their Australian casino resorts to Chinese citizens, the workers were only released this past summer.
Traded on the Australian Securities Exchange, Crown Resorts has been a volatile stock over the last 12 months. That continued following Wilkie s allegations to parliament, but after dropping seven percent in what equates to a company valuation loss of $55 million, Crown stock has rebounded and is down 2.3 percent since Wilkie s announcement.
Packer Admits FailuresDuring Crown s annual meeting, James Packer also took questions from investors and the media, and he was rather candid in his answers.
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