Australian Crown Casino prepares for UK launch

Virtue Fusion-powered Crown Bingo was among parties notified of the application on 10 August. The UK Intellectual Property Office has rubber stamped Crown’s brand for use in three business areas: gambling and casino services including the provision of gaming and casino services over a global computer network; sponsorship of entertainment services (covering competitions such as poker tournaments); and hotels.

Crown Casino's parent company Crown Limited, of which media magnate Kerry Packer’s son James is chairman, completed its acquisition of London’s famous Aspinall’s private gambling club in May 2011. It also has a 50% share in the Aspers bricks 'n' mortar casino group, which operates three Aspers-branded casinos in the UK, due to expand to four in late 2011 with a new property at the Westfield Stratford shopping centre.

With casino and poker unregulated in Australia due to a ban under the Interactive Gambling Act (IGA) 2001, Crown is also a 50% shareholder in the Betfair Australasia JV. This accounted for a us$ 2.5 million equity share loss on Crown’s balance sheet in the last financial year to 30 June 2011, due to an increase in legal and product fees.

The resignation of CEO Andrew Twaits was announced earlier this week.