‘Challenges’: Casino giant slashes 1000 jobs

Casino giant Crown Resorts has announced it will slash up to 1000 jobs amid a drop in tourists and tighter gaming restrictions on its key national venues.

Chief executive Ciaran Carruthers revealed to staff on Monday that Crown Resorts would be restructuring its operations in Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth.

The move is expected cut the overall headcount across corporates and precinct roles by 4 per cent, though the Perth site will be spared the worst.

Mr Carruthers told the Australian Financial Review on Monday that the casino giant faced multiple challenges, including drops in tourism and workers.

“The challenges at Crown reflect greatly reduced foreign tourism, a sharp decline in local workers in the city centres and restrictions on gaming play in Sydney and Melbourne,” Mr Carruthers said.

“We are committed to our regulatory obligations and ongoing transformation, including Crown PlaySafe, Melbourne and Sydney transformation plans and ongoing remediation in Perth.”

Crown Resorts employees more than 20,000 people and is one of the biggest employers in states in which it operates but has struggled with stagnating international travel and a lack of high rollers.

Increasingly tight regulatory controls on casinos has also put pressure on Crown, which has sought to downplay its gaming areas in marketing material and instead highlight its restaurants and entertainment.

Sources familiar with the restructure told AFR that the decision to cut staff was made by Mr Carruthers, not parent company Blackstone, which purchased Crown casinos in June 2022 for almost $9bn.

In July 2023, Crown was ordered to pay $450m after financial crime watchdog AUSTRAC found it had breached its obligations to stop potential international money laundering and terrorism financing.