Following the Royal Commission into casinos, see the Final Report, changes have been recommended and I foresee all Australian casinos implementing most, if not all of the recommendations. Casinos after the Royal Commission will be changing how they do business over the next few years. Some recommendations have already been put in-place at Crown Casino, Perth and I assume similar changes are occurring at other casinos around the country too.

If you are not in a Australia a Royal Commission is described as;

A Royal Commission is an investigation, independent of government, into a matter of great importance. Royal Commissions have broad powers to hold public hearings, call witnesses under oath and compel evidence. Royal Commissions make recommendations to government about what should change.

Description stolen from an Australian Government website

Over the past two years we have noticed changes in policy and policing of the rules at Crown Casino.

We’ve been visiting Crown Casino for over a decade our casino adventure is very predictable, with an hours drive, a Maccas coffee on the way. On arrival the first thing we do is head for an ATM for get some cash. After getting some play money my wife divides it up between us, usually with an 80/20 ratio in her favour. Clearly she needs more because she plays slot machines and they take money faster than you can say “where the f*** did my money go.”

I’m smarter than her and don’t go anywhere near slots. and as a result I can go all day with a starting balance of $100. If I’m having a bad roulette day I might need $200 on a bad day.

ATM withdrawals are limited

We recently tried to withdraw cash only to be told the amount exceeded the limit allowed. $400 was all we could get out – which isn’t enough for a day at the casino.

The issue, for us at least, is we have have a single shared account which means we were limited to $400 between us for the day. Obviously next visit we will take cash with us rather than rely on the ATM’s they have.

In addition, we were staying for two nights at Crown Resorts and the following morning my wife went to the ATM (I already had money from previous day) and it tolder her she needed to wait 24 hours after the previous withdrawal. Being the adorable husband I am I gave her all my money so she could play while I just sat around and did nothing for a few hours because the roulette didn’t start until midday.

Time limited play

We are also limited on how long we can play.

According to Crown’s website;

Breaks in play are encouraged and if your visit spans 12 hours, we will ask you to take a 12 hour break. If your visit spans 48 hours in a week, we will ask you to take a 72 hour (or 3 day) break.

Crown Casino, Perth

I am perfectly Ok with time limited play, my wife isn’t. I am not sure how to interpret the rule above because my wife has had a tap on the shoulder by crown staff much earlier than the 12 hour limit.

While visiting Crown I often see the same people sitting at slots machines, many of them for almost the entire day. I have not doubt some of them are problem gamblers or simply cannot afford to be there, that is why I am 100% behind time limits. Although, it should be reduced from 12 hours to perhaps 6 – 8 hours.

Yet to be implemented

Some changes are yet to become policy, but here are some of the things we can expect.

• Carded play – Unable to play without a registered card
• Max. Losses – Nominate, before playing, how much you can lose

Carded Play

Whilst these changes aren’t implemented yet, as of June 2023, the mandatory carded play will not be a problem for us. Both my wife and I have been using cards at Crown for years and we are both OK with it.

What it does mean is you’ll need to register with Crown, or perhaps the Gaming Authority, for a card which is inserted into your gaming machine prior to play.

These cards will monitor wins and losses as well as play time.

These changes fully support, with some reservations. My most troubling reservation is related to cyber-security and how personal data will be stored. Perhaps they intend to disposed of at the end of each playing day. If the data is kept for future reference what protections & guarantees are in place to protect it?

An individuals gambling habits would represent a high profile target for hackers up to no good.

Nominated maximum losses

There is talk of a policy whereby visitors must nominate an amount they can lose comfortably prior to playing.

I’m confused by this because who is to say the amount nominated isn’t an exaggeration. It would be easy for me to say “Oh, I can easily afford to lose $10,000” when in reality I can’t. Perhaps the amount will be set by the responsible state gaming authorities based on average weekly earnings in Australia.

If the maximum losses are set too low you could be in and out of the casino very quickly, which is counter-intuitive to a casinos business model. The casino wants you to stay as long as possible and spend more.

My confusion is further exasperated by how losses are calculated. For example; if my nominated losses are $500 and I win $2,500 can I now lose more than the original $500 because I have more money than I started with?

Access to the Pearl Room and other VIP areas will require proof of net worth and income and will be strictly monitored. That’s pretty harsh.

Cyber security issues

I’ve been an IT guy for 30 years and have watched the internet change from a very safe place into a dangerous data-hungry beast. I foresee potential issues around the protection of gamblers personal data and gambling habits. Gamblers habits present as a powerful lure for cyber criminals looking to extort money from victims with threats of making details public.

Whilst I’m confident Crown’s IT team have considered security and have the threat well under control, there is a part of me which is predicting an enormous data-breech at some point in the future.

Mitigating cyber threats is a full time job, and I speak from personal experience. I run a dozen or more public-facing internet services and am the target of many hundreds of hacking attempts on a daily basis.

At Crown, or any large organisation, a simple lapse in concentration from someone can lead to disaster allowing cyber-crooks access. Make no mistake, the bad-guys will be searching for weaknesses in Crown’s cyber-defences.

What will they find?

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