Two years after Crown Resorts’ Melbourne property came under government review, and following the acquisition by Blackstone Group, the flagship casino has been deemed fit to retain its license and continue to operate, overcoming a difficult regulatory spell that necessitated strict government supervision because of breach of anti-money laundering laws.

VGCCC Pleased with Progress and Ongoing Efforts

Much of this is now in the past, with the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC), a hardened regulator which emerged precisely because of omissions in the previous watchdog’s model, deeming the Crown Resorts property as suitable to carry on. The VGCCC allowed itself rare praise of the property, calling the “systematic failings” of Crown Melbourne a “thing of the past.”

But ongoing suitability will be significantly demonstrated by how Crown responds to instances of operational failure, not by their total absence.

VGCC chair Fran Thorn

VGCC chair Fran Thorn has spoken about the long process that the property and the regulator undertook to ensure that all regulatory benchmarks are met in full and conscientiously. Crown Resorts has confirmed that it will continue to work towards the betterment of its operations and achieving better sustainability.

“Over 10,000 pages of documentation have been submitted and 770 remediation activities have been delivered to our state regulators, fundamentally rebuilding our organization from the inside out,” Crown CEO Ciaran Carruthers said, indicating that the property has been actively working on clearing up its name.

Crown Resorts will also be paying $294 million worth of fines that have to do with the breaches of AML law, or some AU$450 million.

Too Big to Fail but Not Excused from Responsibility

Crown Melbourne is almost “too big to fail” as authorities seriously debated whether the property should lose its license altogether, but in the end, it was deemed that the adverse economic impact would only compound the matter. The property also remained vigilant over its name being misused by bad actors.

Crown Melbourne is the biggest private sector employer to operate out of a single location in the state, employing some 11,500 staff members, which gives it some bargaining leeway. Regardless, VGCCC’s attitude over the past two years suggested that the regulator would not have hesitated to pull the trigger if it had been forced to shutter the company’s license over non-compliance, however.

Recently, Crown Resorts conducted an internal investigation looking into alleged wrongdoings by CEO Carruthers who supposedly allowed patrons who were escorted out by security back in. These allegations proved false.

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Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, a famous soccer professional playing as a striker for Paris Saint-Germain, streamed himself losing a million playing online poker. The athlete’s unfortunate loss was broadcast live on Twitch.

Neymar has been streaming on the Amazon-owned platform in addition to playing on the field. He is working under an agreement with the iGaming operator Blaze, serving as its ambassador.

The latest stream saw the PSG striker wager a huge amount playing online poker. According to him, all of the money he lost came from his own pocket. While there is no way to confirm that, Neymar’s reaction to losing the money was full of emotion.

Upon losing his bet, the soccer professional acted as if he was about to cry. His friends – like any good friends would – mocked him for his loss. While Neymar was struggling to come to terms with losing a million dollars, his friends played a distorted version of My Heart Will Go On, Titanic’s theme song.

Neymar eventually calmed down and began laughing at his own misfortune, even mocking himself for losing the money by playing an air flute.

Many doubt that Neymar actually pulled the money out of his pocket. A more plausible explanation would be that it was actually given to him by his gambling sponsor.

Usually, streamers in Twitch’s Slots category would have a sponsor who, viewers believe, fuel their accounts with money. This allows content creators to continue streaming and promoting their sponsors’ brands.

Regardless of whether this is really the case, high-rollers are always entertaining to watch because their viewers like seeing high numbers. Few people can truly afford to wager big amounts on poker or another gambling vertical, which is why they are often excited to see celebrities placing their dream bets.

Neymar was known for his love of gambling even before his deal with Blaze. The soccer pro has played poker for years now and has even participated in a variety of major poker events.

Neymar continues to be sidelined in PSG because of an injury he sustained in February. Despite undergoing successful surgery in early March, the player is still recovering. This downtime provides the athlete with plenty of time to continue his adventures in Twitch’s Slots category.

In other news, Twitch recently banned Sliker, whose main account allegedly got hacked. The content creator made headlines after taking thousands of dollars from his colleagues and viewers to gamble.

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