Crown Melbourne Transformation Plan
message from the crown melbourne ceo
Since first opening our doors on the north bank of the Yarra River in 1994, Crown Melbourne has created joyful, elevated experiences for our guests. Today, as Australia's leading integrated resort, we are proudly the safest place to gamble in the State.
Welcoming over 22 million visits each year, we want to continue to be a leading tourism destination as Australia's leading integrated resort, featuring luxury accommodation, award-winning dining, a world-class casino, shopping and entertainment facilities, and directly employing over 5500 Melbourne team members. Through our ongoing transformation efforts, we continue to invest in ensuring Crown Melbourne remains a world-class integrated resort, operating at the highest standards of compliance, governance, and integrity.
However, and prior to a change of ownership in 2022, our journey to achieving this status has come following some significant, and at times confronting, moments in our history, primarily lead by the findings of the 2021 Victorian Royal Commission which identified serious and systemic failures by Crown and subsequent remediation actions.
The Crown Melbourne of today is an entirely different organisation to the one which committed these past breaches, with a focus on guest wellbeing and the ongoing delivery of industry leading standards.
Under the direction of new ownership following Blackstone's acquisition of Crown Resorts Limited (Crown Resorts) in June 2022, and the appointment of new boards and a new executive leadership team, Crown Melbourne has already delivered a monumental transformation throughout the business, and we are setting a new industry benchmark for how gaming is conducted in the State of Victoria through the introduction of Mandatory Carded Play and the investment in our world-leading Crown PlaySafe Centre. We see these investments as a critical part of our social licence within the broader community and are encouraged by the positive guest outcomes we have already seen since of the introduction of these critical initiatives.
While we proudly acknowledged our suitability and retention of our Casino Licence in April 2024, we recognise that our journey is far from complete, and we are dedicated to maintaining our industry-leading standards amid the ever-evolving changes in the industry landscape.
Our privileged position as the exclusive casino operator in Victoria brings with it an obligation to ensure we learn from our past mistakes, and our ongoing focus on transformation, some of which you may already have seen and experienced, is driving significant internal change across the business, including in areas such as financial crime, governance, compliance, risk, and culture.
Ongoing transformation is at the heart of our strategy and is a central focus for the Crown Melbourne Board. In December 2023, we commenced a multi-year transformation journey through the Melbourne Transformation Plan (MTP), aligning our efforts with our commitment to creating a premier entertainment precinct in Victoria. Our vision is to balance our industry leading standards with providing our guests with an unparalleled entertainment experience.
The MTP represents our multi-year commitment to enhancing the practices, processes, and infrastructure established during our remediation phase. Over the past year, we have invested significantly in this dedicated program of work to ensure its success. Our commitment is to:
- Ensure Crown is the safest place to gamble in Victoria.
- Learn from past lessons to create a culture and operating model that ensures we operate within industry leading standards.
- Equip our team members with the correct support to ensure compliance and harm minimisation for our guests.
I look forward to keeping you informed of our progress in the coming months as we continue our efforts in implementing our transformation program.
Yours sincerely
MICHAEL VOLKERT
Chief Executive Officer
Crown Melbourne Limited