SYDNEY - Crown Resorts has retained the licence to operate its flagship Melbourne casino, after a government-appointed manager found the company had rectified a litany of wrongdoings including underpaying taxes, facilitating money laundering and exploiting problem gamblers.

The decision is a let-off for the Blackstone-owned company, which faced the nuclear option of being stripped of its licence to run the casino.

The announcement on March 26 brings to an end an almost eight-year saga dating back to late 2016, when a crackdown by the authorities in mainland China led to the conviction of more than a dozen Crown employees for illegally promoting gambling.

Then, in 2021, an inquiry found Crown was unsuitable to run the Melbourne casino and placed it under the supervision of government-appointed manager Stephen O’Bryan for two years. He handed the regulator his confidential report card on the casino in January 2024.

The commission is satisfied that the “systemic” failures of Crown Melbourne “are a thing of the past”, Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission chairwoman Fran Thorn said at a press conference in Melbourne, where the watchdog is based.

Crown has faced a string of inquiries in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth in recent years that uncovered a swathe of misdeeds. The probes found Crown, which was part-owned by billionaire James Packer at the time, unsuitable to run casinos in each city.

Most damning of all, the investigation into the Melbourne site in late 2021 found Crown had underpaid taxes, facilitated money laundering and exploited problem gamblers.

Former judge Ray Finkelstein, who led the inquiry, described the company’s behaviour as “illegal, dishonest, unethical and exploitative”. BLOOMBERG