It's a bittersweet day for billionaire James Packer after authorities finally agreed to allow his former company Crown Resorts to open its Sydney casino.
The deal, made with NSW's Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) and expected to ratified by state cabinet on Monday, will allow Crown to start gaming in the huge glass Crown Towers, which preside over the city waterfront district of Barangaroo.
A highly-conditional licence was agreed to by the ILGA, which, if the conditions are met and maintained for up to two years, will then turn into a regular licence.
Under the licence, Crown would be allowed to open the VIP gaming floor to high-rollers.
The regulator has also greenlit the $8.9billion sale of Crown to US investment firm Blackstone.
Mr Packer is due for a $3.3billion windfall for his majority 37 per cent stake in the company, ending his 20-year relationship with Crown Resorts' gaming arm.
Crown majority stake holder James Packer will be relieved that the Sydney casino looks set to open despite an official inquiry finding the company unfit to hold a gaming licence in NSW
A man walks past the Crown Sydney hotel resort where the company may finally be able to commence casino operations after a regulator recommended a two-year conditional licence
A new independent and expanded regulator is expected to oversee the Sydney casino's operations under strict conditions to prevent money laundering, an accusation dogging Crown's other casinos in Melbourne and Perth.
The decision comes despite the NSW Bergin Inquiry finding in early 2021 that the company was not fit to hold a gaming licence.
The inquiry was set up in response to Crown's 2017 sale of an almost 20 per cent stake to companies associated with Macau gambling magnate Stanley Ho, who was under an official ban because of alleged Triad organised crime connections.
Crown was also accused of partnering with Asian crime syndicates to organise gambling junkets.
In 2016, Crown staff were arrested in China for illegally promoting gambling.
Crown Towers dominates the skyline in the inner Sydney waterfront district of Barangaroo but the company's casino operations have been dogged by claims of illegal activities
On Tuesday, Crown was hit with an $80m fine from the Victorian regulator for money laundering in its Melbourne casino.
Crown aided Chinese guests to avoid their country's currency restrictions by allowing money transferred on a bank card to be used for gambling, which breached Australian law.
The amounts being gambled were disguised by Crown as payments for hotel services.
Victoria's regulator, which was set up to oversee the casino after an earlier inquiry found Crown was unfit to hold a licence, said the company 'benefited handsomely from its illegal conduct'.
Melbourne's Crown casino has been handed an $80million fine for allowing bank cards to be illegally used to finance gambling and falsely claiming transfers were for hotel services
In May, a Western Australian commission also found Crown's Perth casino engaged in similar activities making the company unfit to hold a gaming licence there.
However, Crown has been given two years to demonstrate it can run cleanly.
The Melbourne and 은꼴 영상 Perth casinos are also facing money laundering court action from financial monitoring agency AUSTRAC.