Casino giant Crown Melbourne will be granted up to $200m compensation from taxpayers for any future problem-gambling measures that affect its bottom line, in a controversial deal set to pass through the Victorian parliament’s upper house on Tuesday night.



The Victorian Greens upper house member Greg Barber said the compensation clause in the deal was “absolutely extraordinary”, and showed that Crown was aware of its dependence on problem gamblers.

“They’ve insured against measures that will actually reduce problem gambling,” he said.

“Therefore, they must know that a significant amount of their profits come from gambling-related harm.”

He predicted that casinos in other states would push for a similar deal, which will also extend the Crown casino licence to 2050 and allow for about 100 more poker tables across its floors.

In return for the concessions, Crown will make more than $900m in payments to the government, including $250m within seven days of the bill commencing.

The Victorian treasurer, Michael O’Brien, has said the agreement would support ongoing investment and jobs for the state and provide significant financial benefits.

But Francis Markham, an Australian National University researcher of gambling-related harms, said the legislation was “unprecedented”.

He said future governments would be prevented from implementing gambling reforms, such as tougher limits on maximum bets, banning of smoking in VIP areas, and more stringent targeting of problem gamblers, until 2050 unless they were prepared to compensate Crown.

“I’m surprised the state government has the ability to legislate for future governments,” Markham said.

“Really this is unprecedented in the Australian gambling space and sets a worrying precedent that we would hate to see replicated in other jurisdictions.

“These are the kind of tactics we saw coming from the tobacco industry who attempted to seek compensation following plain packaging reforms. They are backhanded tactics that seek to delay reforms we know are in the public good.”

He described the $910m in payments to be made to the government by Crown as “measly”.

“The casino will make that money back over the period of the 50-year licence extension from new poker machines they are taking from from other clubs, because we know machines in Crown make twice as much money than those elsewhere in the community,” he said.

Prof Linda Hancock, a Deakin University gambling expert and researcher, agreed that the money the government would gain from the deal was small.

Crown had enjoyed special treatment by the government for years, she said.

“This legislation covers some of the most controversial areas of gambling reform where Victoria already lags behind many other countries in best practice,” Hancock said.

“The government has stuck an unconscionable deal and that’s the problem. They’re not acting in the best interest of the Victorian people and they are giving way too much compensation to Crown.

“It’s hard to fathom why they would give them this many concessions for so little benefit.”

The latest available figures from the Victorian coroner reveal gambling addiction was a contributing factor in nearly 130 suicides in Victoria in the decade to 2013.