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Crown Sydney unveils revamped casino floor

Oceania (Australia) - Ben Blaschke, Inside Asian Gaming - Crown Sydney has unveiled a redesigned casino floor, describing the revamp as being in response to “guest feedback and changing market and tourism conditions.” Having previously closed one of its two gaming rooms in August due to “macroeconomic challenges” and reduced its casino opening hours in November, Crown said the new look casino features a total of 74 gaming tables and 35 electronic table games, plus a brand-new, innovative outdoor gaming area, a private suite for eligible guests and a dedicated premium restaurant.

2 February 2024:

Crown Sydney has today unveiled its newly refreshed and redesigned casino at its iconic harbourside location, now open for Sydneysiders and visitors from Australia and around the world to enjoy1.

Situated in the heart of Barangaroo with floor to ceiling glass walls, the casino has spectacular views of the harbour and is free to join for anyone2 over the age of 18.

The revitalised space features a brand-new, innovative outdoor gaming area, a refreshed menu at dedicated restaurant, Mahogany Lounge, and additional table games in the private Sky Salons on level 28, where members can enjoy some of the city’s most magnificent harbour views.

Crown is committed to providing a world-class integrated resort for Sydney and Australia, and the casino has been revamped in response to guest feedback and changing market and tourism conditions.

Crown Sydney is one of the safest casinos in the world, with industry-leading gambling harm minimisation and financial crime detection and prevention measures in place. Crown PlaySafe enables a fun and safe environment for guests and provides preventative measures and support which prioritise player safety and well-being.

Crown Sydney CEO Mark McWhinnie said: “The unveiling of our new casino experience, coupled with our significant investment in gambling harm minimisation and financial crime prevention, sets a new standard here in Australia for safe gaming entertainment.

“We’ve created a world-class integrated resort with award-winning restaurants, an exceptional hotel and Australia’s first Forbes five star rated spa, and from today – a newly refreshed and redesigned casino.

“The recent updates to the casino are in response to feedback from our growing customer base, and we’re incredibly proud to have created an experience that is unique and exciting but also the safest place for gambling in New South Wales.

“Crown has invested millions of dollars in transforming our business – with significant investment in our guest experience, as well as gambling harm minimisation and financial crime prevention,” Mr McWhinnie said.

For more information on the Crown Sydney Casino, visit the website.

About Crown Sydney

Since opening in December 2020, Crown Sydney has quickly established itself as one of the city’s most sought after dining and staycation destinations with its array of world-class restaurants and bars overlooking Sydney Harbour. Boasting a compelling national footprint, visitors and Sydneysiders alike have access to an unprecedented array of luxurious offerings. The Barangaroo property includes the deluxe Crown Spa Sydney, 349 hotel rooms and suites, luxury residential apartments, nine signature restaurants and bars, premium retail outlets, pool facilities and more.

Guests are treated to unrivalled views of Sydney Harbour’s icons and with its unique architectural, concentric form, Crown Sydney has been designed to stand alongside them as another defining landmark of the city. Now a globally recognisable landmark, Crown Sydney attracts thousands of national and international tourists, helping Sydney compete with other global tourism destinations for business, leisure, and sporting events.

Media Man

Flashback

Crown Sydney once step closer to reality: Gaming - gambling - property billionaire James Packer gets green light to build casino at Barangaroo - 4th July 2013

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Australian casino news: Gaming - gambling - property billionaire James Packer gets green light to build casino at Barangaroo; Sydney, Australia...

Australian billionaire James Packer has been given the go ahead to move ahead and build Sydney's second casino at prime location Barangaroo.

The decision by the NSW government means Crown moves to the final stage of the approval process.

Premier O'Farrell announced Mr Packer's Crown would pay an upfront licence fee of $100 million; that non-rebate gaming would be taxed at 29 per cent - not the 27.5 per cent proposed by Crown and "the total of licence fee and gaming tax payments to NSW over the first 15 years of full operation must exceed $1 billion, a guarantee Crown proposed for its alternate option.

"Growing tourism[is] an important part of our strategy to achieve economic growth," the Premier told the media conference.

The O’Farrell government made its decision after considering a detailed report by a government appointed panel led by former banking chief David Murray.

The report weighed up the Crown proposal and Echo Entertainment’s $1.1 billion plan to transform The Star at Pyrmont into a massive integrated resort, featuring two new luxury hotels.

The NSW Premier advised the Crown proposal had been more lucrative for government than the proposal from Echo Entertainment's The Star Casino for an upgrade.

Mr O'Farrell said Mr Murray had found in his review that "competition" would improve the tourism and gaming dollar in NSW and that was why the Premier had decided to greenlight Mr Packer's casino.

"More important than the benefit of the proposal . . what was clearer and the major determining factor of the recommendations was the need to inject competition into this area," the Premier said.

"The committee discovered that relative to Melbourne we were underperforming in an area where there was $34 billion a year on offer."

Negotiations would now take place to complete an agreement on the proposal.

Mr Murray said only if those negotiations broke down: "If at some stage then there's not agreement the government should move to a tender process after that."

The win concludes a 19-year wait by the Packer family to enter the Sydney casino market after the late Kerry Packer missed out on being awarded Sydney's first licence to the Showboat-Leighton consortium in 1994.

Under the Crown grand plan, a $1.5 billion, six-star casino resort will be built in Barangaroo, ending The Star’s Sydney casino monopoly which is due to expire in 2019.

The 60-storey, 250m tower will include multimillion-dollar penthouse apartments, as well as private VIP gaming suites, signature restaurants and bars, luxury sundecks and an infinity pool.

It will not include poker machines aka "pokies" and gamblers will have to apply to join a Crown membership club to be able to play.

The 350-room hotel will be one of the first new hotels built in Sydney since the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Winning a Sydney licence has become a deeply personal mission for James Packer, who has campaigned vigorously for almost a year to stamp his Crown brand across his hometown.

He wants the Barangaroo venue to be Crown’s international jewel, as it expands further from Macau into new other Asian markets such as Sri Lanka, the Philippines and possibly Japan.

For the O’Farrell government, Crown’s promise to building something truly iconic helps shape the politically sensitive development of Sydney’s last remaining city waterfront precinct.

The Barangaroo plan enables public access to the entire harbour foreshore for the first time since the 1970s. About half of the 22ha precinct will be public space with the northern most point to be reshaped into a park taking the form of the space before European settlement in 1788.

Mr Packer’s pitch also included promises that the new resort would be developed to such a standard that it would become an “architectural postcard” to help boost tourism to NSW, especially from the rapidly expanding Chinese middle-class.

British architects Wilkinson Eyre, which created Singapore’s acclaimed Guangzhou International Finance Centre, won a $10 million international competition to design the tower.

Its winning design’s curves and fine lines take their inspiration from three petals.

Mr Packer won support for his plan from former prime minister Paul Keating, who has been a vocal proponent of ensuring Barangaroo is developed sensitively.

The battle between Crown and Echo has heated up in recent weeks with Echo chief executive John Redmond accusing Crown of wanting to build a “casino tower on steroids” rather than a true VIP-only facility.

Echo offered to go ahead with its $1.1 billion investment even if Crown won a Sydney licence, as long as its casino was restricted to what is known in the industry as International Rebate Business.

But in a blow to such a compromise, the Premier indicated last week it would be “impossible” to work out a way to enable both plans to go ahead.

Echo's plan also included an offer to pay the NSW government $250 million if it rejected the Crown plan and enabled The Star to extend its monopoly status for another 15 years from 2019.

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