Crown Resorts Ltd was as much as 12% higher this morning as news filtered out that it had retained its Melbourne casino licence.
The entertainment giant now must jump through myriad hurdles over the next two years to keep it.
Crown’s performance today has helped the ASX to a reasonable gain just after midday.
The S&P/ASX200 has gained 17.20 points or 0.23% to 7,458.20, setting a new 20-day high.
Over the last five days, the index has gained 1.13% and is currently 2.29% off its 52-week high.
As hinted, Crown was one of the top performers even though it has retraced slightly to be up 8.59% at time of writing.
The other top performing stock in the index is Nanosonics Limited up 8.81%.
As for the sectors, the IT sector is leading the way with Afterpay up 2.9%.
The Consumer Discretionary, Materials, Health Care sectors also outperformed, with Wesfarmers up 0.8%, BHP up 1% and CSL up 0.5%.
Crown keeps licence … for now
Crown has been given two years to turn its behaviour around and will spend those two years under the supervision of a special manager.
According to Gaming Minister Melissa Horne that person would have “unprecedented” powers including the right to attend all Crown board meetings, direct the board and veto board decisions, and inspect all records, books and documents.
“This is a role unprecedented in Australian corporate history that provides a level of oversight that has previously been unknown,” Horne said.
If Crown is still deemed unsuitable to hold a licence after the two-year period, the government would move to cancel the licence.
“The government will automatically assume that Crown’s licence has been cancelled, unless they demonstrate otherwise,” she said.
“This puts the onus well and truly on Crown to reform itself.”
The final report of Victoria’s Royal Commission was released this morning, with a number of recommendations that will change the customer experience.
One of the recommendations is compulsory carded play.
“It is recommended that a direction be given to Crown Melbourne … to the effect that carded play be compulsory at the Melbourne casino for all gaming,” Commissioner Raymond Finkelstein wrote in the report.
It is also recommended that the card be used to collect data relating to how long a player is playing, turnover, wins and losses and “such further information as the regulator reasonably requires for anti-money laundering and Responsible Service of Gaming purposes”.
Identification of all gamblers, cashless play and changes to pokies have also been mooted.
“It is recommended … that Crown Melbourne phase out the use of cash at the Melbourne casino, save for gaming transactions of $1,000 or less,” Finkelstein said.
Major changes to pokies use would see customers having to set daily, weekly or monthly time and loss limits. Once those limits are reached, punters will be able to change the limits for 36 hours.
If no limit is selected, Crown would use a default limit.
Gamblers would also only be able to be on a machine for 12 hours out of a 24-hour period. If they exceed this limit, they would have to sit out for 24 hours.
As well as gamblers being affected, James Packer’s Consolidated Press would be forced to sell down its major 37% holding to less than 5% by 2024 and while this doesn’t apply to other shareholders, regulatory approval will be necessary for shareholders coming in to take more than a 5% stake.
On the small cap
Emmerson Resources Ltd (ASX:ERM) is up 18.31%. ERM hit visual copper intersections during a drilling campaign over the Hermitage Project in the Northern Territory’s Tennant Creek Mineral Field.
Tempus Resources Ltd (ASX:TMR, TSX-V:TMRR) is up 5.56% at time of writing after uncovering ‘bonanza’ grade gold from its newly discovered Blue Vein at its flagship Elizabeth Gold Project in Canada.
Pantoro Ltd (ASX:PNR) is up 3.33% following the first production at its jointly owned Norseman Gold Project in the WA’s Eastern Goldfields in the third quarter of 2022.