Australian casino giant Crown Resorts sees shares fall after reports Asian crime syndicate used it to launder cash

Crown Resorts may be investigated by Australia’s parliament after reports that an Asian crime syndicate allegedly laundered money through the Melbourne-based company’s casinos.

The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald newspapers, along with the 60 Minutes television programme, reported at the weekend that Crown used junket operators with links to drug traffickers as it sought to bring high-roller Chinese gamblers to its Australian casinos.

The reports, which cited unidentified law enforcement officials, further examined China’s crackdown on the company, which saw 19 current and former employees convicted in 2017 of illegally promoting gambling.

Crown said in a statement it had a “robust process for vetting junket operators” that are regularly reviewed, and denied knowingly exposing its staff to the risk of conviction in China. The company, whose biggest shareholder is currently Australian billionaire James Packer, fell 3.2 per cent in Sydney trading on Monday, the most in more than three months.

Independent lawmaker Andrew Wilkie, a long-time critic of the gambling industry, called on the Australian government to establish a parliamentary committee, which could potentially hold public hearings into the allegations raised in the report and require witnesses to testify.

“This has reached a point where the Australian government has to pay attention,” Wilkie said.

Crown – which has casinos in Melbourne, Perth and another under construction in Sydney – said it had a comprehensive anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing programme that was subject to supervision by the financial crimes agency, Austrac.