A famous quote from Kerry Packer. "There is nothing like the...

A famous quote from Kerry Packer.  "There is nothing like the sound of a boss's footsteps to get the attention of the staff"

I think a few people at crown need to start hearing footsteps..


Crown Casino 'tampered' with poker machines, former staff allege, as Andrew Wilkie tables claims in Parliament

© ABC News: Jane Cowan Crown is Victoria's only casino. Crown Casino deliberately tampered with poker machines, and turned a blind eye to illicit drug use and domestic violence, whistleblowers have alleged in damning evidence tabled in Federal Parliament.
The video evidence includes allegations from three former staff at Victoria's only casino, who accused Crown of forcing staff to remove betting options from pokies, and to "shave down" buttons on gaming machines to allow illegal continuous play on the machines, independent MP Andrew Wilkie said.
Under state rules, the practice of allowing a machine to spin without a user pressing a button for each spin is banned.
But the former staff alleged they were instructed to use tools to shave down buttons on new machines to create space for punters to wedge something next to them, so the buttons could be held in place and keep the machine playing continuously.
Mr Wilkie tabled the allegations, including a 30-minute recorded interview with the three whistleblowers, in what is believed to be the first case of video evidence being tabled in Federal Parliament.
According to the evidence, staff were also instructed to use different player ID cards when processing transactions over $10,000 to avoid reporting to Austrac, the country's anti-money laundering agency.

The testimony was recorded as part of "PokieLeaks", a campaign launched by Mr Wilkie and fellow independent Nick Xenophon to expose illicit practices in the industry.
The explosive allegations come as the Victorian Government conducts its five-yearly review of Crown Casino's licence.
Watchdog 'took no action' over machine tampering
© ABC News: Diana Hayward Victorian poker machines are required to return 85 per cent of overall bets to punters. Victoria's gambling watchdog also came under fire from the ex-staff, who said inspectors did not act when they detected gaming machine technicians deliberately disabling several punting options on gaming machines.
"The worst case was where they [Crown] asked us to remove three out of five the play options,'' one man said.
On a standard poker machine there are a five betting line options — to play one, five, 10, 20 or 40 lines of wheels.
"They got rid of the five, 10, 20 [line options], so your options were one — which is betting two cents on the middle line — or 40, which is all the combinations," he said.
"So you basically remove betting options from the machine.
"We thought that was probably dodgy because we knew that the approval [of the machine by authorities] had come out with those extra buttons.
"The fact that they rolled that back a week later proves that that was not above board."
In the evidence, the former Crown employees said that when inspectors for the Victorian Commission for Gaming and Liquor Regulation (VCLGR) saw the buttons were disabled, they immediately ordered the machines to be fixed but did not take further action.
Punters 'used drugs, soiled themselves'
In February, Victoria's auditor-general warned that the VCGLR's compliance division "has not applied a level of focus on the casino that reflects its status and risk as the largest gaming venue in the state".
The auditor-general's report said also said areas of risk, such as money laundering, were not getting sufficient attention.
The former staff also alleged:
* Punters soiled themselves while betting, and Crown provided them with clean clothes so they could continue gambling.
* Illicit and obvious drug use was ignored by the casino.
* Crown put the most high-yielding poker machines in the highest traffic position in the casino during peak periods, and regularly reset machines' memory to manipulate the returns to players.
Under return-to-player guidelines in Victoria, pokies are required to return 85 per cent of the overall money gambled on each individual machine to players, allowing the rest to be kept as profit.
According to Responsible Gambling Victoria, it takes millions of games for a machine to reach its return rate, so the amount actually returned to players in any one session, day or week can vary significantly.
They also said staff were instructed to cover up incidents of domestic violence and not alert police.
"It was more a matter of 'let's calm the situation down'. So you remove the wife, so he can then come back to the gambling,'' one said.
'Misbehaviour' goes beyond Crown: Wilkie
© AAP: Mick Tsikas Independent MP Andrew Wilkie tabled the accusations in Parliament. Mr Wilkie called on the federal and state governments to thoroughly investigate.
"Many laws have possibly been broken and the truth will not be uncovered without a parliamentary inquiry, as well as investigations by law enforcement and regulatory agencies," he said.
"Although the allegations focus on Crown in Melbourne, they also suggest a broader pattern of misbehaviour in the poker machine industry.
"That, obviously, has grave implications for people right around Australia."
Mr Wilkie said it was shocking regulators had turned a blind eye to the practices at Crown.
"I'm horrified to recount that the Victorian Commission for Gaming and Liquor Regulation, has allegedly done nothing to stop this shocking criminal misconduct," he said.
The ABC has contacted Crown, the State Government and the VCLGR for comment.
For more on this story, watch 7.30 tonight on ABC TV.