Gambling is a very popular activity throughout the world. Many people of different ages are actively involved in the industry. While some countries are more or less on the primary positions of the list in the industry Australia is the definite leader among all of them. Australian gambling industry is the leader on a global scale, by 80% of the population, being involved in any kind of gambling activity, and it is gaining even more popularity. This happens, due to a variety of offers for the clients. Thousands of clubs, pubs, bars, casinos, poker, sloth games as well as betting variations are available for the clients, which makes the industry very flamboyant.
The bigger the harder
The bigger the number of customers is, the more attention it needs. Despite having a great effect on the country’s economic state, there still have been several issues raised concerning corruption allegations as well as other tax-related criminal occurrences. The very important is to maintain the security and privacy of the customer on the highest level as well to have full trust while operating in the huge industry.
As mentioned before, there are a lot of casinos in Australia, though one of the biggest and most important player on the field in the Crown Resort Casino. Exactly mentioned previously casino has been involved in most of the criminal reports and has been under the investigation for some time already due to several reasons.
Online gambling is prohibited by, Australian Communications and Media Authority, the main regulatory body in the gambling industry in Australia, according to the Interactive Gambling Act 2001. The license for online playing still can be obtained, though for the people living in the Northern part or citizens living outside Australia. Likewise, some regulations need to be amended or implemented in order to prevent further escalation of gambling crimes.
The Reason
The subject of the investigation is mainly focused on the Crown Resort Casino, which is located in two states, Victoria and Western Australia. There have been reports made by local media authorities that casino operators have not only been involved in the petty criminal activities, but also in getting special treatments from the government. Crown Resort Casino has faced allegations linking to some Chinese criminal organizations, working in collaboration with foreign junket operations to attract illegal and illicit Chinese high-rollers to the Australian Casinos, avoiding any customer checks as well as providing VIP clients with fast-tracked visas. If all of this was not enough, in addition to this, they are accused of supporting anti-money laundering activities on its premises.
Besides the criminal activities, the main disappointing circumstance is treatment from the governmental side, referring to the tax cease. The casinos are not free of tax but try to avoid paying the full amount of taxes. While mentioning Crown Casino as the dominant player in the market especially in the states of Victoria and Western Australia, they are being favored by means of paying considerably lower taxes than the other opponents. It is an agreeable subject, that while having the revenue of almost $2 billion, paying very low taxes can be unfair towards the other players. This might result in losing interest from the competitors and having fewer casinos, which can be a threat to healthy competition, as despite Crown being the largest gambling operator the account is disbursed only for 11%.
Due to every misconception that led to the current state, The Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR), which is the major regulatory body that oversees the gambling sector in the state of Victoria has been blamed for inattentiveness and corruption.
Comments have been made stating that the VCGLR needs to change its approach in order to be more effective and to conduct the observations more sufficiently. So far the representatives of the industry in Australia do not find the body as efficient as it is required to be by the federal state.
As some of the subjects can be closed, there is no doubt that there are serious legislative loopholes in terms of Crown Resort, that need to be fixed. The quality of the market, competition and the number of clients will most likely decrease unless the regulations and rules apply the same way for everyone. As the country is considered to be the biggest gambling nation worldwide, the risks of the gambling-related harm should be taken to the minimal.