{"id":64529,"date":"2017-12-04T12:00:29","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T20:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=64529"},"modified":"2017-12-04T12:25:23","modified_gmt":"2017-12-04T20:25:23","slug":"crown-resorts-faces-class-action-lawsuit-china-arrests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-resorts-faces-class-action-lawsuit-china-arrests\/","title":{"rendered":"Crown Resorts Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over China Arrests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian gambling giant Crown Resorts is facing a class action lawsuit that claims the company failed to inform shareholders of a marketing campaign in mainland China that led to the arrest of 18 Crown employees.<\/p>\n

\"Crown
James Packer\u2019s Crown Resorts is facing a lawsuit that claims the company should have informed shareholders of its risky Chinese activities. (Image: AAP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The lawsuit was filed by law firm Maurice Blackburn, which said that it had received hundreds of registrations from shareholders as part of the action.<\/p>\n

Employees Arrested for Marketing Gambling Trips<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The suit stems from an October 17, 2016 incident in which 18 Crown employees were arrested in mainland China for marketing gambling trips to Macau.<\/p>\n

Chinese authorities would convict the employees, including Jason O\u2019Connor, the executive vice president of Crown\u2019s VIP International division, of organizing gambling excursions for high rollers in violation of anti-corruption laws.<\/p>\n

The employees were sentenced to between nine and 10 months in jail, and have all since been released.<\/p>\n

The arrests had significant impacts on Crown\u2019s operations<\/a>. VIP revenues were cut nearly in half in the months that followed, and the company would abandon its international strategy, cancelling a planned Las Vegas resort and relinquishing its holdings in Melco Resorts in Macau.<\/p>\n

Shareholders Needed to Know Risks, Lawsuit Says<\/strong><\/h2>\n

According to Andrew Watson, head of class actions for Maurice Blackburn, Crown should have understood the risks of illegally marketing gambling trips in China, and had a duty to let shareholders know it was trying such risky tactics.<\/p>\n

\u201cChinese authorities could not have made the risks of marketing gambling any plainer to Crown or other casino operators, yet Crown ignored these warnings,\u201d Watson said. \u201cShareholders should have been apprised of the risks that Crown was taking in China and the threat they posed to the company\u2019s revenue streams.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Crown acknowledged the lawsuits, but did not elaborate, saying only that it would \u201cvigorously defend the proceeding.\u201d<\/p>\n

In previous comments on the arrests, Crown Executive Chairman James Packer has said that he was disappointed in what had happened, but that he wasn\u2019t in a position to know about the illegal operations when they occurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t on the board at the time but it is pretty clear Crown should not have been put in the position it found itself,\u201d Packer told The Australian <\/em>in October.<\/p>\n

Packer has also admitted that the incident was a major factor in his company\u2019s failure to become a global gaming powerhouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t succeed in a global strategy,\u201d he conceded last month.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For now, the company will try to focus on growth at home. Construction has recently begun on Crown Sydney, the VIP resort the firm is building in Barangaroo. There have been concerns that falling VIP revenue for Crown as a whole could translate to disappointing results for the new facility as well.<\/p>\n

Crown is also facing accusations from former employees who allege the company tampered with slot machines<\/a> at the Crown Melbourne. The whistleblowers have said that staff were instructed to remove some buttons and functions from certain machines in order to limit the play options for players and encourage gamblers to make larger bets. Packer has strongly denied the allegations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian gambling giant Crown Resorts is facing a class action lawsuit that claims the company failed to inform shareholders of a marketing campaign in mainland China that led to the arrest of 18 Crown employees. The lawsuit was filed by law firm Maurice Blackburn, which said that it had received hundreds of registrations from shareholders […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":64530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,21,10,60,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCrown Resorts Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over China Arrests<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Crown Resorts is facing a lawsuit from shareholders over the company\u2019s marketing efforts in China, which led to the arrest of 18 employees.\" \/>\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\/crown-resorts-faces-class-action-lawsuit-china-arrests\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Crown Resorts Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over China Arrests\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Crown Resorts is facing a lawsuit from shareholders over the company\u2019s marketing efforts in China, which led to the arrest of 18 employees.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-resorts-faces-class-action-lawsuit-china-arrests\/\" \/>\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=\"2017-12-04T20:00:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-12-04T20:25:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/3ce365d7f16c768eee2a9eb9f56b38af.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"366\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-resorts-faces-class-action-lawsuit-china-arrests\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-resorts-faces-class-action-lawsuit-china-arrests\/\",\"name\":\"Crown Resorts Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over China Arrests\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-resorts-faces-class-action-lawsuit-china-arrests\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-resorts-faces-class-action-lawsuit-china-arrests\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/3ce365d7f16c768eee2a9eb9f56b38af.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-04T20:00:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-12-04T20:25:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Crown Resorts is facing a lawsuit from shareholders over the company\u2019s marketing efforts in China, which led to the arrest of 18 employees.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-resorts-faces-class-action-lawsuit-china-arrests\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-resorts-faces-class-action-lawsuit-china-arrests\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-resorts-faces-class-action-lawsuit-china-arrests\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/3ce365d7f16c768eee2a9eb9f56b38af.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/3ce365d7f16c768eee2a9eb9f56b38af.jpg\",\"width\":650,\"height\":366,\"caption\":\"James Packer\u2019s Crown Resorts is facing a lawsuit that claims the company should have informed shareholders of its risky Chinese activities. 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