Mainland China VIP casino customers lost around $665 million (A$875 million) at Crown Resorts casinos during the previous financial year, court filings from the Shanghai Baoshan district court showed.
Obtained by Australian news outlet The Australian Financial Review (AFR), the court papers were released in relation to the recently closed case that stemmed from last year’s detention of 19 Crown staff members who had allegedly promoted casino gambling services across Mainland China. Advertising of casino gambling and casino gambling as a whole are strictly prohibited in China, with Macau being the only exception.
According to the court filings, which were released on Friday by the Shanghai Baoshan court, Crown’s Head of VIP Gaming Jason O’Connor was arrested for allowing aggressive marketing approaches when seeking new customers in Mainland China.
Mr. O’Connor was among the 19 Crown employees who were detained last October. The staff members were arrested on October 14-15 in police raids that also saw the confiscation of laptops, mobile phones, iPads, and other hardware as well as credit cards.
Three of the detained employees were released on bail shortly after. The other sixteen staffers have been kept by Chinese authorities since then. The Crown staff members were convicted late in June. They received sentences of nine to ten months, including the time they have already spent in jail. Thus, some of the employees will be released later in July, while Mr. O’Connor will walk out in mid-August. The court also ruled that Crown pay $1.3 million on behalf of its employees.
The AFR also reported that Australian gambling regulators will review the Chinese court decision to find out whether Crown had breached the terms of its casino license. Investors have also expressed interest in probing into the ruling in order to assess the operator’s dependability on Chinese VIP clientèle.
According to the Shanghai Baoshan district court, Mainland China high rollers were handed out around $27.2 billion (A$35.8 billion) in rolling chips by Crown during the last financial year. It is believed that patrons usually lose an average of 2.5% of their rolling chips. The figures are a significant indicator of the importance of Chinese high rollers for Crown’s operations.
The company saw significant withdrawal of that particular gambling group from its domestic casinos in the months after the arrests. The events also resulted in Crown shares sliding 25%. The company’s profitability has improved over the past several months due to the sale of its international assets and its strategy to redirect its focus on its domestic business only.
