Crown granted Melbourne casino license extension until 2050

The new agreement on the license means that Crown has secured operating rights for the casino till 2050 from its current license date of 2033. However the company will have to take an increased levy of $184 million on all its poker machines. 

In the deal Crown Resorts which is owned by billionaire James Packer can increase their poker machine numbers by 128 to 2,628 when licenses for those machines are available, also they can add up to 40 live gaming tables and another 50 automated roulette machines. 

The current state limit on poker machine is 30,000 and Crown are not allowed to increase that number but can buy entitlements from pub and clubs that have poker machines but want to remove them because of the increasing costs of running them. 

One of the best parts of the deal for Crown is the ‘super tax’ which is placed on international and interstate VIP players, which Crown has been pushing to cut, this will be removed after the current financial year. 

Crown chairman James Packer said that the group will have invested $1.7 billion to upgrade Crown Melbourne in the 10 years to 2016, but has always been held back by Victoria government’s tax regime. 

“Despite this investment, Crown has for a long time been at a major competitive disadvantage on the issue of taxation. Now, with the support of the Victorian Government, we will have a licence that enables us to compete on a level playing field to help drive tourism, jobs and economic benefit for the State,” Mr Packer said.