{"id":76278,"date":"2018-04-24T13:00:45","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T20:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=76278"},"modified":"2018-04-24T10:45:44","modified_gmt":"2018-04-24T17:45:44","slug":"crown-resorts-hit-with-more-accusations-of-slots-tampering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-resorts-hit-with-more-accusations-of-slots-tampering\/","title":{"rendered":"Crown Resorts Hit with More Accusations of Slots Tampering"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s Crown Resorts<\/a> is facing new accusations of slot machine tampering at its flagship Crown Melbourne Casino.<\/p>\n

\"Crown
Long-time scourge of the Australian gambling industry Andrew Wilkie believes Crown Resorts\u2019 gaming license should not be renewed until all slots-tampering allegations have been thoroughly investigated. (Image: The Examiner)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Longstanding anti-gambling lawmaker and perennial Crown Resorts adversary Andrew Wilkie announced this week he had been approached by a former VIP customer at the casino who claimed staff had provided her with \u201csmall plastic picks\u201d to stick into the gaps between betting buttons on slot machines. These were used to keep the buttons depressed, allowing for automatic and continuous play.<\/p>\n

The woman also claimed the casino issued her with multiple loyalty cards so she could earn loyalty points while playing multiple machines at once.<\/p>\n

Police Informed<\/strong><\/h2>\n

According to the Sydney Morning Herald<\/em>, under Victorian gaming law, slots with non-stop spins are permitted in certain specially designated areas of the casino, but tampering with machines that must pass strict regulatory scrutiny could be against the law. For Wilkie, though, there is no doubt.<\/p>\n

“I have raised [the allegations] with the VCGLR (Victoria state gaming regulator) personally earlier today,” he told SMH<\/em>. “And I have also written to the chief commissioner of Victoria Police and suggested police also need to look at these matters, because if these matters are true, they would be criminal.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Previous ‘Button Blocking’ Accusations<\/h2>\n

In March, the VCGLR announced it would commence disciplinary proceedings against Crown after finding evidence of \u201cbutton blocking\u201d at the Crown Casino Melbourne.<\/a><\/p>\n

The regulator\u2019s investigation was prompted by the allegations of three \u201canonymous whistleblowers\u201d \u2013 all ex-Crown employees \u2013 who testified to Wilkie they had been ordered to \u201cshave down\u201d betting buttons on slots so customers could jam them in and gamble non-stop. \u00a0The whistleblowers also claimed they were instructed to remove, or \u201cblank out,\u201d certain low betting options on the machines.<\/p>\n

\n

Crown countered that between March and April 2017 it had conducted a three-week trial on 17 of the casino\u2019s 2,628\u00a0slot machines. The operator said it did not seek regulatory approval for the trial because it didn\u2019t violate any gambling laws.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Nevertheless, these are unwelcome allegations for Crown Resorts at a time when its license is up for review. Wilkie said he believes there is “no way the license should be renewed until all the allegations have been fully investigated”.<\/p>\n

“If Crown is found to be guilty of any offences in regard to any of the individual allegations, then I think a cloud hangs over the renewal of their license,” he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s Crown Resorts is facing new accusations of slot machine tampering at its flagship Crown Melbourne Casino. Longstanding anti-gambling lawmaker and perennial Crown Resorts adversary Andrew Wilkie announced this week he had been approached by a former VIP customer at the casino who claimed staff had provided her with \u201csmall plastic picks\u201d to stick into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":76282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,21,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCrown Resorts Hit with More Accusations of Slots Tampering<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Crown Resorts faces fresh accusations of tampering with slot machines, this time from a VIP customer who said she was given small plastic picks to wedge into betting buttons to facilitate non-stop play.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Crown Resorts Hit with More Accusations of Slots Tampering\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Crown Resorts faces fresh accusations of tampering with slot machines, this time from a VIP customer who said she was given small plastic picks to wedge into betting buttons to facilitate non-stop play.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-resorts-hit-with-more-accusations-of-slots-tampering\/\" \/>\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=\"2018-04-24T20:00:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-04-24T17:45:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/wilkie.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\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\/crown-resorts-hit-with-more-accusations-of-slots-tampering\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-resorts-hit-with-more-accusations-of-slots-tampering\/\",\"name\":\"Crown Resorts Hit with More Accusations of Slots Tampering\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-resorts-hit-with-more-accusations-of-slots-tampering\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-resorts-hit-with-more-accusations-of-slots-tampering\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/wilkie.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-24T20:00:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-04-24T17:45:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Crown Resorts faces fresh accusations of tampering with slot machines, this time from a VIP customer who said she was given small plastic picks to wedge into betting buttons to facilitate non-stop play.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-resorts-hit-with-more-accusations-of-slots-tampering\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-resorts-hit-with-more-accusations-of-slots-tampering\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-resorts-hit-with-more-accusations-of-slots-tampering\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/wilkie.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/wilkie.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":675,\"caption\":\"Long-time scourge of the Australian gambling industry Andrew Wilkie believes Crown Resorts\u2019 gaming license should not be renewed until all slots-tampering allegations have been thoroughly investigated. 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