Operator News
Australia – NSW Authority to investigate Crown’s links to Stanley Ho
By Phil - 8 August 2019
NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority is launching an inquiry into Crown Resort’s Barangaroo licence concerning the sale of shares in Crown Resorts from James Packer’s CPH Crown Holdings Pty Limited to Lawrence Ho’s Melco Resorts & Entertainment.
The deal was confirmed by Crown in a Media Release dated 31 May 2019. Reports out of Australia have said that Mr. Ho bought almost 10 per cent of Crown Resorts despite allegedly being a director of a company prohibited from dealing with Crown due to its links with Ho’s father, Stanley.
The reports have highlighted Lawrence Ho’s role as a director of Lanceford, one of 59 companies described as associates of Stanley Ho who are prohibited from conducting business with Crown under a unpublicised condition of Crown’s licence to build a new casino at Barangaroo in Sydney.
A statement from NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority said: “The Authority is inquiring into this transaction under section 35 of the Act together with various matters raised in recent media reports published by the Nine Network, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Age relating to Crown Resorts. The Authority is to have regard to the primary objects of the Act in exercising its functions. This includes ensuring that the management and operation of a casino remain free from criminal influence or exploitation, that gaming in a casino is conducted honestly and controlling the potential of a casino to cause harm to the public interest and to individuals and families.”
