Vic Crown inquiry begins in Melbourne

The Victorian Royal Commission into the suitability of gaming giant Crown to hold a Melbourne casino licence will hear evidence from Monday, revealing its first four witnesses.

The commission will question Timothy Bryant and Jason Cremona from the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation.

Questions will focus on the gambling regulator’s monitoring of Crown, its investigation into the 2016 arrests of 19 staff across four Chinese cities, and junket operations.

All those arrested in 2016 were later charged with gambling promotion offences, and remain the subject an ongoing class action against Crown.

In 2019 media reports, it was alleged that Crown junket operators brought in high-rolling gamblers from China with links to organised crime.

The revelations led to the establishment of the Bergin inquiry in NSW, which in February found Crown unfit to run a casino at its newly built Barangaroo complex in Sydney.

The other two witnesses to be questioned in week one of the Victorian commission are Dr Murray Lawson, director of Ethics and Risk Culture at top accounting firm Deloitte Australia, and Nick Stokes, head of financial crime and money laundering reporting officer at Crown Resorts Limited.

Written submissions to the Victorian royal commission closed on April 26.

Inquiry CEO Elizabeth Langdon on Saturday released 30 submissions received from the public online. She said 46 had been lodged in total but not all were suitable for publication.

To provide greater opportunity for people to engage with the commission, she said relevant documents had been translated into eight languages.

Mr Finkelstein has been given until August 1 to report back to the government with recommendations.