Is Crown Casino Perth Open Tomorrow

Crown Perth’s restaurants will soon reopen, but its casino doors will remain closed.

WA Today reports that hospitality venues across Western Australia will reopen on Saturday, but will remain idle at the state’s biggest private employer, Crown Perth.

Crown Burswood complex. Posted April 26, 2020 08:08:04 The massive car parks at the Perth Crown casino complex are barely full. Crown Casino is now open and ready to welcome you back. Restrictions on the gaming floor will apply, with safety as our priority. The Western Australian Government requires Crown Perth to maintain a mandatory contact register of all guests and employees as an additional protection measure to control the spread of COVID-19.

Some bars and restaurants will be back in the game at WA’s gaming mecca, but discussions between authorities and Crown Perth on when gaming floors reopen are ongoing.

Several venues at Crown Perth were close to fully booked ahead of phase three restrictions hitting just in time for the battered hospitality industry on June 6, but the resort’s chief executive officer Barry Felstead said only about half of the 5500 people employed pre-pandemic would be back at work initially.

A selection of restaurants and bars including The Merrywell, Nobu, Silks, Modo Mio, TWR and Bistro Guillaume will open their doors to the public for the first time in almost two months.

“We’ve got about 2100 food and beverage staff and we’re going to bring back several hundred of them for the first phase of opening up some of our restaurants,” Mr Felstead said.

Eight of Crown’s 35 restaurants and bars will operate from this weekend as part of the resort’s phased approach back to full operation.

The state of play on the resort’s gaming floors, which employ thousands of people and are a big component of Crown’s bottom line, was less clear.

“We’re looking to kick discussions off this week,” Mr Felstead said.

“Obviously we’re pretty keen to get the main part of the property open.”

Mr Felstead said a variety of health measures were in place for restaurants and also the casino for state health officers to consider.

He didn’t rule out the possibility patrons who wanted to gamble with cards and chips on blackjack tables, for example, wearing gloves if that meant those elements of the gaming floor could reopen sooner.

The sprawling design of bars and restaurants means several could open at once and still abide by the government’s 100/300 rule.

“Our restaurants are treated as separate venues; we can potentially open 10 or 11 restaurants with 100 people in each,” Mr Felstead said.

“The restaurants are spread out and we’ve had a lot of bookings already.

“People will come in, they’ll go to the restaurant – socially distanced of course – have their meal and that’s pretty much it.

“Obviously the casino isn’t open so there’s not much else to do other than the restaurants at this point in time.”

Crown Perth restaurants to reopen but wheels won’t roll on casino floor https://t.co/HMdsjQIKJf

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Accommodation options receive good interest

The top-range Crown Towers was open for bookings and several rooms were available, while the resort’s mid-range Metropol would be back online soon.

“We’ve had a very good demand for bookings without much advertising and a lot of interest in people coming to the restaurants,” Mr Felstead said.

A Crown spokesperson said staff had worked hard behind the scenes to implement measures to reduce infection when each of the resort’s restaurants reopened.

“Guests and employees will be required to comply with physical distancing measuring while on property, all in accordance with government requirements, which include venue capacity and density limits and spacing between tables,” they said.

“High frequency cleaning will be implemented across all areas of the entertainment complex with an emphasis on high-contact surfaces and frequently used areas, including cleaning all tables and chairs between each seating.”

Guests would also be asked to use hand sanitiser upon entry to restaurants and employees were required to wash their hands or use hand sanitiser at frequent intervals, with hand sanitiser stations placed across the resort.

It has towered over Sydney: a gleaming, twisting harbour-side skyscraper that was supposed to host some of the world's biggest high-rollers.

But Crown Resort's $2.2 billion Barangaroo development is in danger of becoming a giant white elephant, after its new casino was yesterday blocked from opening.

Is Crown Casino Perth Open Tomorrow Now

The NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) ruled that Crown Resorts would not be allowed to open its gaming facilities at Barangaroo in mid-December as planned.

It came after an 11-month inquiry into the company's casinos in Perth and Melbourne.

Late Tuesday night, Crown admitted to the ILGA inquiry for the first time that money-laundering was 'likely' occurring through the accounts it set up for VIP gamblers.

Crown's Barangaroo business is in a holding pattern until the inquiry hands down its findings in February.

Is Crown Casino Perth Open Tomorrow 2020

Here are three things that could happen after that.

1. The casino is allowed to open as normal

The building was due to be home to a casino, 14 bars and restaurants and a luxury 350-room hotel which were all due to open on December 14.

Although the regulator has barred Crown from opening the casino on that date, that could change in February 2021.

That's when Commissioner Patricia Bergin, who has been overseeing that 11-month inquiry, will decide whether Crown is fit to keep its gaming licence.

If she finds in their favour, the gaming floors in the 72-storey building would be free to open next Autumn, though don't expect pokies.

The casino is supposed to be exclusively for high-rollers.

2. The casino is allowed to open as long as James Packer is not involved

If Crown can salvage its core gaming business, it may be forced to cut ties with James Packer.

The former chairman resigned as director of Crown Resorts in 2018 and sold off a large portion of his shares but remains a major stakeholder today.

Yesterday, counsel assisting Adam Bell SC urged the Commissioner to ban Mr Packer from associating with Crown.

Threatening emails sent by Mr Packer to an anonymous businessman were presented to the inquiry, which Mr Packer admitted were 'shameful' and 'disgraceful'.

Mr Packer also said he knew of at least four junket operators during his tenure — Suncity, Song, Meg-Star and Qin Si Xin — some of which were reportedly linked to organised crime.

Mr Packer said the junket operators were 'good for business' but admitted he had no understanding of Crown's oversight of them.

In 2016, nineteen employees of junket operators were arrested and charged in China for promoting gambling to find VIPs for Crown's high-roller business, with 16 of them going to jail in China.

Throughout the enquiry, Crown's board has maintained it knew nothing of the concerns raised by staff in China.

Is Crown Casino Perth Open Tomorrow Opening

Earlier this month, Mr Bell said the lack of action showed the reporting lines within the company were 'compromised'.

3. The casino is blocked from opening altogether

Earlier this month, Mr Bell told the inquiry he believed Crown should not be allowed to open their Barangaroo casino.

'In summary, we submit that the evidence presented to this inquiry demonstrates that the licensee is not a suitable person to continue to give effect to the licence and that Crown Resorts is not a suitable person to be a close associate of the licensee,' he said.

Yesterday, that recommendation was upheld, sort of: Crown Resorts will not open their new casino until the ILGA reads and reviews Commissioner Bergin's findings in February.

If Crown's 99-year licence is revoked, the casino element of the tower could be taken over by another operator or repurposed.

For now, the fate of the harbourside tower remains unknown.