James Packer’s private company considered selling shares to a controversial junket operator and then disclosed Crown’s profit forecasts to the eventual buyer, Melco, before the sale.
CROWN chairman James Packer has admitted he gets upset when people accuse him of making millions of dollars from gamblers' misery.
- WhatsApp Crown Casino chairman James Packer has joined the likes of the NRL and Clubs Australia in attacking independent MP Andrew Wilkie's proposed poker machine reforms.
- Last month, it was announced that James Packer's Crown Resorts and Aristocrat Leisure were the subject of a landmark legal case which promises to highlight the 'deceptive and misleading behaviour' of pokies manufacturers and venues.
- Packer's Crown targeting Millennials with gamer pokies August 31, 2018 A pokies manufacturer with ties to James Packer’s Crown Resorts has launched the first applications in Australia to roll out a revolutionary new style of poker machine — “skill-based” gaming.
- James Packer has declared his opposition to pokies reform and the Ten Network has already demonstrated it is willing to take a stand.
Mr Packer weighed into the pokies debate yesterday when he argued the Gillard government's proposed betting limits wouldn't reduce problem gambling.
In response, anti-pokies MP Andrew Wilkie said Crown's profits came at a terrible human cost, mentioning the suicide of one punter at Packer's Crown Casino in Melbourne after he 'blew the lot on the pokies'.
South Australian senator Nick Xenophon compared Mr Packer's stance on pokies reform to Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe's position on democracy.
Mr Packer on Friday said he was particularly disappointed Mr Wilkie raised the May suicide of the 45-year-old man in a hotel room the casino had provided to him for free.
The billionaire businessman said while he had developed a fairly thick skin it was upsetting to be accused of profiting from others' misery.
'I obviously do get upset at that,' Mr Packer told Fairfax Radio.
'It's not nice when people go to your character.'
The Crown boss said he'd prefer to argue the issues rather than the people.
He said casinos were his biggest business interest 'by far' and he was proud of that fact.
'I get my back up against the wall when people start spinning the line, 'Why are you peddling evil?' Mr Packer said.
'This perception that the only people that come to Crown are helpless victims and we are just sitting there preying on them - I reject that absolutely.'
Mr Packer said that suggestion was spin from the 'latte set', but customers visited Crown Casino and Burswood Casino in Perth 'because they enjoy it'.
A self-confessed gambler at the race track and blackjack table, Mr Packer said Crown didn't want to fight the Gillard government because 'we know if there's a fight we will lose'.
Rather, the company wanted a say in how problem gambling was tackled.
James Packer Pokies Pictures
'The implementation has got to be right and that's what we hope we can have a small influence in,' Mr Packer said, adding that at a minimum Labor should trial mandatory pre-commitment before rolling it out nationally.
Mr Packer said the scheme would result in Asian tourists going to Macau, Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia to avoid having to 'fill in forms' before playing the pokies.
But the 44-year-old isn't confident the Government will take up the suggestion of a trial.
James Packer Today
'Is the government listening to us?' he said today.
'The Government is trying to make sure they are there tomorrow.'
James Packer Pokies Photos
James Packer Pokies Images
Originally published asPacker 'upset' by personal pokies attacks