Melbourne’s Crown casino has been slapped with a record fine for failing to look after patrons, some of whom were allowed to keep gambling for days.

The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission hit Crown Melbourne with two fines totalling $120 million, including $100 million — the maximum penalty available — for failing to prevent harm.

Customers were allowed to gamble for long periods “for 12, 18, 24 and even longer hours,” said VGCCC chairwoman Fran Thorn.

Ms Thorn said the casino prioritised profits over its obligations to protect patrons which had led to gamblers turning to forced sex work, among other harmful impacts.

“The stories of financial loss, of suicide attempts, of forced sex work,” said Ms Thorn.

“The people who gambled for two to three days straight. These are real stories of real harm. We cannot forget and we cannot tolerate it.”

A 2021 royal commission found the Southbank casino had breached its code of conduct for the responsible service of gambling over about 12 years.

It found the casino failed to prevent gambling harm for its customers and also failed to comply with a statutory direction by the regulator.

“This total fine is for two separate issues and it’s based on extensive findings of wrongdoing by the Victorian Royal Commission into the casino operator and licence,” Ms Thorn told reporters on Monday.

VGCCC applied the maximum penalty of $100 million for the code breach finding after Crown allowed patrons to gamble for long periods without a break, sometimes for upwards of 24 hours.

“For a long time, Crown had promoted itself as having the world’s best approach to problem gambling. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Ms Thorn said.

She added the casino ignored warnings about changing its “conservative” policy on play periods in 2018, which was problematic as many patrons could have been protected from gambling harm.

“This conduct breached Crown’s own policy on play periods. They were not isolated breaches – there was a pattern of extensive, sustained and systemic failure by Crown that spanned at least 12 years.”

Stories of loss and suicide attempts linked to gambling were heard at last year’s Royal Commission and raised serious concerns.

A second fine of $20 million was imposed due to Crown’s failure to prevent patrons from using plastic picks and other devices to hold down pokie machine buttons.

Ms Thorn said the use of button picks allowed patrons to play continuously and on multiple machines at the same time.

In 2019, Crown ignored requests to stop supplying the button picks and to take necessary steps to ensure such objects were not used by its patrons.

AAP has contacted Crown for comment.

The commission’s final report described Crown Resort’s behaviour as “disgraceful”, with practices that were “variously illegal, dishonest, unethical and exploitative”.

But royal commissioner Ray Finkelstein also decided the economic effects of Crown losing its licence, the impact on innocent parties, and the company’s belated attempts at rehabilitation meant it should keep its casino licence – at least for now.

The Victorian government has accepted this recommendation.

It instead appointed a special manager to oversee the casino’s operations for two years. He will prepare a report for the state’s beefed-up regulator, the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission led by Ms Thorn, which will decide if Crown keeps its licence.

“Crown are on probation at the moment and about 15 months’ time, the commission be making a decision to determine whether or not Crown is suitable to continue to hold its licence,” Ms Thorn said on Monday.

“If it loses its license, if it’s found not be suitable, it’s a much bigger hit
than $100 million.”

–with AAP