{"id":168889,"date":"2021-03-29T10:49:43","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T17:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=168889"},"modified":"2021-03-29T11:04:59","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T18:04:59","slug":"nick-mckenzie-named-journalist-of-the-year-for-crown-resorts-expose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nick-mckenzie-named-journalist-of-the-year-for-crown-resorts-expose\/","title":{"rendered":"Reporter Who Exposed Crown Resorts Wins \u2018Journalist of the Year\u2019 At Crown Melbourne"},"content":{"rendered":"

A reporter who exposed Crown Resorts\u2019 ties with triad junket operators has been named Journalist of the Year at the Melbourne Press Club\u2019s Quill Awards. The venue? The Crown Melbourne Palladium event space.<\/p>\n

\"Nick
Nick McKenzie at the Melbourne Press Club\u2019s Quill Awards at Crown Melbourne, where he was named \u201cJournalist of the Year\u201d on Friday night. (Image: Twitter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nick McKenzie\u2019s reportage has heaped nothing but misery on Australia\u2019s biggest casino operator over the past 18 months.<\/p>\n

McKenzie and colleagues pored over thousands of leaked internal Crown documents in stories for The Age<\/em> and current affairs show 60 Minutes. <\/em>That ultimately unleashed a regulatory wrecking ball on the company’s operations.<\/p>\n

Among their conclusions was that Crown had allowed criminal gangs to launder drug money through its casinos in Australia. They also accused the company of exploiting weaknesses in the Australian visa system to fast-track known criminals into the country to gamble.<\/p>\n

McKenzie described a \u201clust for profits-proven arrogant culture where almost anything, including courting people with ties to the criminal underworld, was not only allowed, but encouraged.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Unbalanced\u2019 Reporting<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Following the reports, Crown took out a full-page advertisement<\/a> in a rival newspaper claiming this \u201cunbalanced and sensationalized reporting is based on unsubstantiated allegations, exaggerations, unsupported connections, and outright falsehoods.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday, the Melbourne Press Club disagreed with Crown\u2019s assessment of McKenzie\u2019s talents. And a public inquiry examining Crown\u2019s suitability for licensing in the state of New South Wales largely backed up McKenzie and his colleagues\u2019 findings.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0700-plus page report compiled by former NSW Supreme Court judge Patricia Bergin found that Crown had been \u201cfacilitating money laundering, exposing staff to the risk of detention in a foreign jurisdiction, and pursuing commercial relationships with individuals with connections to Triads and organized crime groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

As a result, Crown lost its license in New South Wales. This derailed its plans for the Crown Sydney, a $1.7 billion high-end casino, hotel, and apartment complex that opened in December, minus its casino.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The bombshell Bergin report has triggered similar inquiries in the other two jurisdictions in which Crown operates, Western Australia and Victoria.<\/p>\n

Irony Alert<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Last week, the Victoria inquiry kicked off<\/a>, examining the company\u2019s suitability for licensing in Melbourne, home of Crown\u2019s flagship property.<\/p>\n

The irony was not lost on McKenzie as he cradled his shiny award in that property\u2019s event space. He suggested taking the A$10,000 cash prize in a plastic bag down to the cashiers to convert into gambling chips.<\/p>\n

Coincidentally, A$10,000 is the threshold at which cash transactions must be reported by a casino operator to AUSTRAC. That’s the Australian financial crimes unit that is currently investigating Crown for money laundering violations.<\/p>\n

Had McKenzie not been joking, and had Crown converted those chips without doing the paperwork, he might have had another story on his hands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A reporter who exposed Crown Resorts\u2019 ties with triad junket operators has been named Journalist of the Year at the Melbourne Press Club\u2019s Quill Awards. The venue? The Crown Melbourne Palladium event space. Nick McKenzie\u2019s reportage has heaped nothing but misery on Australia\u2019s biggest casino operator over the past 18 months. McKenzie and colleagues pored […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":168892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69069,21],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNick McKenzie Named "Journalist of the Year" for Crown Resorts Expose<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nick McKenzie, journalist wins journalist of the year award at the Melbourne Press Club\u2019s Quill Awards for Crown Resorts expose.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nick-mckenzie-named-journalist-of-the-year-for-crown-resorts-expose\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nick McKenzie Named "Journalist of the Year" for Crown Resorts Expose\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nick McKenzie, journalist wins journalist of the year award at the Melbourne Press Club\u2019s Quill Awards for Crown Resorts expose.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nick-mckenzie-named-journalist-of-the-year-for-crown-resorts-expose\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-29T17:49:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-29T18:04:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/nick.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"653\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nick-mckenzie-named-journalist-of-the-year-for-crown-resorts-expose\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nick-mckenzie-named-journalist-of-the-year-for-crown-resorts-expose\/\",\"name\":\"Nick McKenzie Named \\\"Journalist of the Year\\\" for Crown Resorts Expose\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nick-mckenzie-named-journalist-of-the-year-for-crown-resorts-expose\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nick-mckenzie-named-journalist-of-the-year-for-crown-resorts-expose\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/nick.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-29T17:49:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-29T18:04:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Nick McKenzie, journalist wins journalist of the year award at the Melbourne Press Club\u2019s Quill Awards for Crown Resorts expose.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nick-mckenzie-named-journalist-of-the-year-for-crown-resorts-expose\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nick-mckenzie-named-journalist-of-the-year-for-crown-resorts-expose\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nick-mckenzie-named-journalist-of-the-year-for-crown-resorts-expose\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/nick.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/nick.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":653,\"caption\":\"ick McKenzie at the Melbourne Press Club\u2019s Quill Awards at Crown Melbourne where he was named \u201cJournalist of the Year\u201d on Friday night. 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