The union has rejected Crown's offer of a 2.5 per cent annual wage increase over each of the next three years and claimed Crown had agreed in principle to only one of its demands - to reduce the.

Updated October 18, 2017 20:57:18

Melbourne's Crown Casino deliberately tampered with poker machines, and turned a blind eye to drug use and family violence, whistleblowers have alleged in damning evidence tabled in Federal Parliament.

Key points:

• Independent MP Andrew Wilkie tabled the former workers' allegations in Parliament
• Crown allegedly deliberately disabled approved punting options on machines
• Machine buttons were tampered with to allow illegal continuous play, the whistleblowers claim

Victoria's gambling regulator said it would 'thoroughly investigate' claims made by three former Crown staff in video evidence tabled by independent MP Andrew Wilkie.

However, the men said the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) had previously discovered machines had been altered, but took no action except to order they be fixed.

Crown issued a statement rejecting the claims, which include allegations that:

• Staff were told to remove betting options from pokies
• Crown regularly reset machines' memory to reduce returns to players
• Staff were instructed to use different player ID cards when processing transactions over $10,000, to avoid reporting to AUSTRAC, the national anti-money laundering agency
• Punters soiled themselves while betting, and Crown provided them with clean clothes so they could continue gambling

Crown also ordered staff to 'shave down' buttons on gaming machines to allow illegal continuous play on the machines, the former workers said.

State rules ban the practice of allowing a machine to spin without a user pressing a button for each spin.

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 the buttons, so they could be held in place to keep the machines playing continuously.

Crown allegedly gave gamblers plastic items similar to guitar picks, featuring Crown's logo, which were jammed next to the buttons to hold them down.

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.

The testimony was recorded as part of 'PokieLeaks', a campaign launched by Mr Wilkie and fellow MP 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.

In a statement issued to the Australian Stock Exchange, Crown Resorts said it 'rejects the allegations made today under parliamentary privilege … concerning the improper manipulation of poker machines and other illegal or improper conduct at Crown Casino in Melbourne'.

'Crown calls on Mr Wilkie to immediately provide to the relevant authorities all information relating to the matters alleged.'

Watchdog 'took no action' over machine tampering

The former workers said VCGLR inspectors did not act when they detected gaming machine technicians deliberately disabling several punting options on gaming machines.

What ex-workers allege Crown Casino did

Former staff have made a range of claims about Crown Casino which will be investigated by regulators.

'The worst case was where they [Crown] asked us to remove three out of the five 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 VCGLR inspectors saw the buttons were disabled, they immediately ordered the machines to be fixed but did not take further action.

In a statement, the VCGLR said it was working on improving its supervision of Crown.

'We take any claims of this type extremely seriously and they will be thoroughly investigated,' the statement said.

'The VCGLR maintains constant oversight of the Melbourne casino and has taken active steps over the past 12 months to improve our level of supervision of the casino.

'This includes establishing a specialist dedicated casino team.'

'Remove the wife, so he can keep gambling'

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 Crown put the most high-yielding poker machines in the highest traffic position in the casino during peak periods, and frequently reset pokies' RAM (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.

The former workers also said staff were instructed to cover up incidents of family 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

Mr Wilkie called on the federal and state governments, as well as regulators, to 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.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the allegations should be taken seriously by the state regulator and Crown Casino.

'There are rules there, they should be followed,' he told the ABC's Statewide Drive program.

Will Crown Casino Ban Winners List

'We don't want predatory behaviour, we don't want people doing the wrong thing.

'Part of having an independent watchdog … that's a recognition that probity is very important, standards and confidence are very important and I am equally confident that the regulator will do their job.'

The Victorian Greens' gambling spokeswoman, Colleen Hartland, said Crown should not be allowed to continue operating poker machines until an independent audit is done.

Will Crown Casino Ban Winners 2017

Topics:corruption, gambling, parliament, federal-parliament, government-and-politics, southbank-3006, melbourne-3000, vic

First posted October 18, 2017 10:25:12

Casino jackpots are not so rare phenomena as evidenced by regular publications in the mass media. The truth is that we do not need any newspapers to hear about some lottery winners, how they won their money at favorite casino games or how they spent their winning afterward.

When somebody wins in the lottery, hits jackpot at slots or strikes roulette, the news about those people spread all around immediately after it happens, and a year later or so you can see the reports on how their lives are going on.

The media gives casino champs a considerable measure of attention since we, onlookers, are extremely inquisitive about them. Who were they before their immense success? What were their lives before they won? Do they desrve it? What are they doing with the cash right now? Is it accurate to say that they are wasting it? Easy come - easy go?

The truth is that many people simply don't generally get that gambling club champs here and there win exactly the amounts of cash as all gamblers do. All card sharks have out of the blue won millions or any other large sum of dollars by playing craps, slots, blackjack, roulette, and other diversions at clubs, both online and land based.

How's that? Well, what if we discuss a couple of most fortunate ducks who have become wildly successful at their favorite games and became the high rollers everywhere throughout the world?

Some of these wins are amazing and even funny stories. Let's discover what their lives before they won were, what they did with the cash and where they're now and also find out how to win the jackpot in an unconventional method.

Read Review

1. Cynthia Jay Brennan / $34,959,458.56 / Las Vegas, NV / 2000

Until almost the age of forty, she was a completely unremarkable person. The most interesting thing that can be said about Cynthia J. Brennan is that she grew up in a family where there were five sisters and three brothers. A 37 year old woman with a typical American appearance worked as a waitress in Vegas and dated the bartender from the casino. One day her mother came to visit her, and they went to play at the casino.

Cynthia played bingo and won thirty-five million dollars! At that time, at the beginning of the new 21st century, it was the biggest win in the history of slot machines. Cynthia married his beloved bartender and decided to travel round the world.

Unfortunately, her luck ended, anger and mercy came instead, when Cynthia got into a car accident where her sister Lela was also killed just a month after the great winning. Another car driven by a drunk driver hit her car and caused hard injuries. She was paralyzed. Today, Cynthia still cannot move and is paralyzed from the waist down and has to use the wheelchair. All that she can is to move her arms and shoulders.

Will Crown Casino Ban Winners 2016

She also needs careful assistance to do the daily tasks like brushing her teeth or hair and dressing up, etc. Terry Brennan, her husband, is still at work as a bartender at Las Vegas Monte Carlo Casino, where they used to meet. He does his best to take care of his paralyzed wife. The money she won is spent on treatment and health care, though it's not worth all the millions.

The most pathetic is that Cynthia says she’d give all those $35 million back, if she could walk again just be healthy and get her sister back. Such a sad story.

2. Ashley Revell / $270,000 / Las Vegas, NV / 2004

This is a pretty interesting story of success. Can you bet all you have? This guy definitely can. Ashley Revell was the most common, not different from the other inhabitants of the UK until 2004. His life was uncomplicated, as the life of an ordinary man, not encumbered by intellectual quest and so on, but he had his own passion. He liked playing roulette and poker. So thanks to this passion, Ashley managed to become one of the most popular players on the roulette wheel.

Excitement in any game is irresistible, and Ashley Revell made up his mind to make an extreme decision: to sell all his belongings, as it was necessary for his passion - playing in Las Vegas. This seemed to be a rash step, done by him in 2004, but became a turning point for his gambling success, however. This was announced by Ashley only to the closest friends. However, everybody knows what provokes gossips: what 2 people know, the whole world knows. This was what happened to Ashley. Soon his undertaking got into the local media, and the man decided to announce his idea on a reality show. As a result of this scheme, his friends went to Las Vegas together with Ashley, the relatives and even the crew of one of the TV channels also came along.

So, in 2004, this very excitable Englishman named Ashley Revell sold all that he had, starting with the car, an apartment ending with his personal stuff. With about 135 thousand dollars, he went to Las Vegas to play for high stakes. Upon arrival in Las Vegas Ashley possessed only136,300 dollars in the pot, so to play, the Englishman chose «Plaza» which was not a very famous casino. He started with poker and lost $ 1,000, further the played and made some small bets on roulette, where he ventured to put his entire bank on black. He changed his mind at the eleventh hour as the majority prefrred red as he thought. The helpful staff at the TV channel watched him and called his step - 'all or nothing.' The gambling strategy of Revell looked a little strange, but it brought some results. After he put everything on red, all that remained, the ball stopped at the red seven.

Ashley Revell, who made a bet on black, got a little confused and somehow changed his mind, putting his whole sum on red, finally won and bacame rich! No one guessed how the intuition helped him. However, he won the large sum of 270 600 dollars. After such a successful twist, the 32-year-old Ashley Revell became literally a legend in the world of gamers.

Today he is the owner of his own website dedicated to poker and one of the most promising gambling businessmen. Ashley Revell entered the gambling history as one of the riskiest players ever.

3. Kerry Parker /$ 30 million/Las Vegas/MGM /1997

Kerry Parker is often called a generous billionaire and definitely deserves the title. Australia is considered to be one of the most gambling countries in the world. A billionaire from this country like Kerry Parker is another player who entered the history of gambling both due to his unique wins and loses.

In 1997, he arrived to Las Vegas to have a little fun and won at baccarat more than twenty million! Thus, he left one million a local waitress for tips. We wonder if she could work in a casino after such an event at all? She could probably also become a hero of this article who won a million in an an unconventional method. However, Australian billionaire Kerry Parker is the key figure also known worldwide for his huge losses at casino games, which made him an especially interesting persona.

He was not so long in the game, but even during this short period he became a very prominent figure in the world of gambling. Having earned a huge fortune thanks to a large media corporations, he decided to play in the casino. It was for him an excellent way to have rest and try some new leisure activities. He liked to play card games like baccarat and blackjack. He was aslo a high roller and supporter of the highest rates, loved risk and considered it an important part of a happy life.

So, for the billionaires like him, to lose a few million is not as deadly as for ordinary people. But this Australian businessman and tycoon went down in history not only for his loss, but also for his wins! According to Kerry Parker 's family legend, Kerry's grandfather once found a 10s coin and placed it on the races in London. The win allowed him to buy a ticket to Australia. There he became a journalist and founded his media business. In such a way, his case was continued by his son and then grandson, and rather successfully.

Kerry Parker's gambling always took place at the highest stakes in casinos. This enabled him to destroy the MGM casino for 30 million dollars in 1997, and another British institutions for 10 million. Delighted with his winnings, he immediately became richer and often overspent his huge profits being as generous as hell. He could leave the tips of about a million dollars to the waitress and the maitre d 'hotel! On the other hand, Parker could somehow lose up to 20 million in just one night at another fashionable casino in London. It was a record of casino loss in the country's history! His vaforite Australian casino was 'Crown' and the games of blackjack and baccarat that brought him his fortune.

Now Kerry Parker, once the richest man in Australia is already dead. He died a billionaire of kidney failure on 26 December 2005 but has left a huge fortune. Shortly before his death, Parker acquired the Crown Casino Network, which is one of the leading largest gambling companies. This man managed to spend $ 20 million at London casino, however, was never particularly upset, because cold always remind that he had won 30 million dollars at the MGM casino in one shot. What a positive dude!

4. Elmer Sherwin / $21,147,947 / Las Vegas, NV / 2005

Elmer Sherwin is widely known as a crazy pensioner. He is also a two-time Megabucks winners because he manged to win $ 5 millions first and then won $ 21 million in another session.
Mega-Millions is a lottery which also represents Megabucks slots, and casinos that offer them are one of the most favorite and wining among the average slots players. The progressive jackpot from Megabucks has been widely sought after since 1989.

Thus, in 1989, an ordinary pensioner and the World War veteran named Elmer Sherwin, a US citizen, hit a huge jackpot in one of the casinos in Las Vegas. It was immensely big at that time — about five million dollars. To be exact, Elmer Sherwin won 4, 6 million dollars in 1989. In 2005, he won twenty-one million dollars, which actually made him a multimillionaire at the Cannery Casino & Hotel in Las Vegas.

The most significant was the fact that the drop rate of the jackpot on his machine was one of five million, but Elmer did beat the odds! His case was published in Guiness book as one of the biggest jackpots in the history of gambling and remains one of the most remarkable records ever done in the world history. The amount is impressive, but it is far from the modern poker records. However, why Mr. Sherwin has not yet been forgotten?

The fact is that Elmer did not stop on this success and continued to play regularly. Even after the first win, sixteen years later, he managed to hit the next jackpot, which was this time much larger - twenty-one million dollars.

What is more, with that cash, Elmer gave a considerable amount to the Hurricane Katrina relief fund and donated to support the whole his family, including his own son and a little daughter-in-law.

Elmer died two years after the winning case, in March 2007, being an old man. What a noble man he was!

These were some of the biggest casino winners in the history. Now you know how they won their cash, if it was some unconventional gambling method or a pure luck and what happened to them after their immense success, as well as where they are now.

If you know someone who's the biggest casino winner with the same interesting story of success, welcome to share it and do not forget to comment below. Good luck!

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