Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex
Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex is a casino and entertainment precinct on the south bank of the Yarra River, in Melbourne, Australia. Crown Casino is a unit of Crown Limited.
Crown's current casino complex opened in 1997. It is one of the central features of the Southbank area in the central business district and the Crown Promenade fronts onto the waterfront as part of Southbank Promenade. Children under 18 are permitted into the entertainment section of complex, but not into the gaming area or areas serving alcohol.
Casino
Crown Casino opened in 1994 at the World Trade Centre on the north bank of the Yarra River, moving to the new complex at Southbank in 1997. Actress Rachel Griffiths infamously ran through the casino topless on its opening night. It is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week except on Christmas Day, Good Friday and Anzac Day. It was originally founded, owned and run by Lloyd Williams until the Packer takeover by PBL in 1999. Crown Casino is the largest casino in the southern hemisphere, has a license for 350 table games and 2500 poker machines. [1]
Games
Amongst other games, Crown provides the 6 main casino games of Blackjack, Craps, Pai Gow, Poker, Baccarat and Roulette but it was also the first to introduce an electronic version of Roulette known as Rapid Roulette. Rapid Roulette is essentially the same as traditional roulette but rather than players placing bets on a layout, all gaming takes place on a personal electronic touch screen connected to a central roulette wheel. The purpose of this is to provide the player with easy access to the entire betting layout. Rapid Roulette has been in use for several years, and recently Rapid Bigwheel and Rapid Sic-bo have been developed.
As well as Caribbean Stud Poker on the main gaming floor, Crown has also offers varieties of poker including Texas Hold'em. The Crown Poker Room encompasses a large separate space in the Crown basement.
Crown casino has 2500 poker machines on the casino floor, with values of 1 cent, 2 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, 20 Cent, 50 cent and 1 dollar available. Slot machines at Crown are made by Aristocrat, VLC, AGT, IGT, Konami and Stargames, with 2 Dollar machines in the VIP area.
Government oversight
The regulator overseeing the Casino's activities, and to whom grievances can be addressed to is the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation. The VCGR regularly monitors the casino's operations to ensure Crown conforms to Victorian Gambling laws. Crown has been repeatedly charged and fined for minor breaches of the Casino Control Act 1991.
Rewards programs
The Crown Entertainment Complex launched a complex-wide rewards program called "Signature Club" on October 1st, 2009. Signature Club members earn points on every dollar spent at most outlets within the Crown complex (including bars, clubs, hotels, restaurants, gaming, shopping and spa). Points are redeemed for goods and services within the complex. The amount of points earned is used to determine Signature Club tier levels (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Black), with each tier rewarding members with different discounts, offers and entrance to varying VIP areas throughout the complex. The Signature Club program replaces the 'Mahogany Room', 'VIP Slots', 'Riverside Slots', 'Crown Club' and 'Priveledge Gold' cards. Unlike previous schemes, it rewards all patrons, including those who visit Crown for non-gaming purposes. Legislation now requires that the casino provide player activity statements for loyalty card holders that describes their gaming machine usage. (needs reference)