Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JAPAN APR 2021 28 Attention has now turned to Crown Melbourne with the launch of a Royal Commission in Victoria. ビクトリア州での王立委員会の開始によって意識はクラウン・メルボルンに向いている COVER STORY disclosure about that by Bergin. Certainly she didn’t preclude herself from listening to the evidence from Coonan. “These things matter, and in Victoria where you’ve got a Commissioner who will see himself as being instructed to dig up new dirt, there is potential for a lot more intense questioning of the fact that Coonan has been on the Crown board for the past nine years. There is real potential for stuff to come out in Victoria that likely won’t get any airing in Western Australia where they are allowed to rely on the findings of Bergin and will start on the premise that most of what was covered by Bergin is on the record and incorporated into proceedings.” For its part, Crown has already taken multiple steps to address the findings of the Bergin Report. In October last year, the company terminated two agreements with CPH in response to concerns around Packer’s influence on the board. One was a 2018 Controlling Shareholder Protocol that had seen Packer, but not other shareholders, provided daily updates on the company’s performance, financial forecasts and detailed information on revenue from the VIP business. The other was a 2016 Services Agreement which allowed Crown to request the services of key CPH executives at pre-agreed hourly rates. Notably, the first two directors to fall on their swords following release of the Bergin Report in February were Jalland and Johnston – both CPH executives who had been serving as Packer’s representatives on the Crown board. Termination of the CPH agreements was followed a month later by the news that Crown would permanently cease all activity with junket operators at its casinos in Victoria, New South Wales and