The Australian Prime Minister has dismissed calls for a new national casino regulator.
Following on from the news of the Star scandal in New South Wales and talk of a new regulator taking over the territory’s iGaming industry, the Australian Prime Minister has since shot that idea down.
The Bell Report, which detailed the scandal of the Star casino, put the Star Entertainment Group’s future in doubt but has not convinced the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that a new regulator for the nation is the answer.
As we reported on September 6th, the move to a new regulator, the Independent Casino Commission, or ICC was supposed to take place on the 5th of September. However, that is a New South Wales, state-wide change, and has prompted discussion about the idea of making it a nationwide change.
These discussions are led mainly by independent MP and anti-gambling campaigner Andrew Wilkie, who has called for a national inquiry into the sector and its operators. He found the Bell Report’s findings to be “no surprise” and said they point to “deep cultural and systemic problems in the company”.
However, the Australian Prime Minister, Albanese, appears to believe that this can be well-handled on a state-by-state basis.
“I think it’s pretty obvious that the state regulators are doing a pretty good job of holding the casino operators to account,” he said.
“I’m not in favour of regulation for the sake of it. And I think it’s pretty hard for anyone to argue that either Crown or Star are not being held to account at the moment.”
