James Packer’s private company considered selling shares to a controversial junket operator and then disclosed Crown’s profit forecasts to the eventual buyer, Melco, before the sale. A pokies manufacturer with ties to James Packer’s Crown Resorts has launched the first applications in Australia to roll out a revolutionary new style of poker machine — “skill-based” gaming machines — aimed at attracting younger gamblers. James Packer, the founder of Crown Resorts, has admitted he sent threatening emails to a person he was working with while being at the casino’s helm. The billionaire agreed to sending the emails in 2015 but blamed his state at the time for what was said. Western Australia Pokies. The Burswood Island Casino was established by Perth businessman Dallas Berger in 1985. After 20 years in operation, Kerry Packer bought the complex in 2004. His son, James Packer, renamed the casino Crown Perth in 2010. Due to laws in Western Australia, though, poker machines are not allowed in the complex. August 2017: James Packer formally rejoins the Crown Resorts board. In addition to this instability in the leadership at Crown, there have some well publicised incidents and strategic backflips involving Mr Packer and Crown Resorts which The Alliance believes are relevant for the current review.

A pokies manufacturer with ties to James Packer’s Crown Resorts has launched the first applications in Australia to roll out a revolutionary new style of poker machine — “skill-based” gaming machines — aimed at attracting younger gamblers.

The Victorian gambling regulator is understood to be working with the company towards a possible trial of the new-style devices at Crown’s flagship casino in Melbourne, while the authorities in New South Wales are cautioning there is a lack of sufficient research into the gambling-harm risks.

Crown's joint venture, Chill Games, is developing a range of new 'skill-based' pokies products.

Photo: Josh Robenstone

In applications lodged in both states last month, Wymac Gaming Solutions is seeking approval of the so-called skill-based gaming product which mixes an element of skill with the ordinary pokies-playing experience, and is said to have more in common with video games.

The founders of Melbourne-based Wymac and Crown Resorts are in a 50/50 joint venture called Chill Games, developing a suite of new gaming machine products that determine payouts based on player ability as well as chance.

The push towards skill-based gaming follows rising fears among casino operators worldwide about the ageing population of their pokies players and fears of a looming drop-off in their pokies revenue — valued at $12 billion a year in Australia. The industry sees skill-based, arcade-style games as a way to widen the appeal of pokies to millennials, who find traditional push-button pokies mindless and uninteresting.

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Elsewhere in the world, skill-based slot machines incorporate elements of skill, such as hand-eye coordination or speed, into games, or could simply be casino versions of puzzle-like games, sports-like games or shooter games. They can be single or multi-player, and, so far, they have been rolled out at casinos in several US states, including Nevada, home to Las Vegas, and New Jersey, home to Atlantic City.

Wymac’s applications in NSW and Victoria, submitted to regulators last month, will have to face investigations over problem-gambling risk factors. By adding an element of skill to pokies, some experts say, players may have a heightened sense or “illusion” of control over the game, which could caused prolonged gambling and heavier losses.

“I think that's a really dangerous mix,” said Samantha Thomas, an associate professor at Deakin University. “One of the things that really creates risk with gambling is when people have an inflated sense of skill associated with it.”

James Packer Pokies Images

Another researcher, Sally Gainsbury, the deputy director of Sydney University’s Gambling Treatment and Research Clinic, is leading a research project in conjunction with a US skill-based slot manufacturer, GameCo, surveying 232 players and examining whether they “overestimated” the role of chance.

James Packer

James Packer Pokies Pictures

Photo: Sahlan Hayes

State regulator Liquor & Gaming NSW said there was a “lack of research on potential risks of skill-based gaming” and said it would commission studies in coming months before reaching a decision on the application.

“We need to better understand issues such as risks around illusion of control and game returns for players with varying skills before any decisions are made on skills-based electronic gaming machine applications,” a spokesman said.

In assessing applications for new electronic gaming machines, the spokesman said, “we consider gambling-harm risks and must be satisfied the proposed electronic gaming machines appropriately addresses those risks and is consistent with responsible conduct of gambling”.

The Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation said the Wymac application was under consideration. Factors to be considered when assessing the application for a skill-based machine include the return-to-player rates, the fairness of the game and responsible gambling issues, a spokeswoman said.

Crown Resorts and Wymac declined to comment on Friday.

Announcing the Chill Gaming joint venture in August last year, Crown Resorts said skill-based gaming was an interesting concept that was “gaining traction”.

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“It is a reaction to the emergence of games that are different to traditional games,” Crown chief financial officer Ken Barton said.