Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex
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| Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex | |
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| Facts and statistics | |
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| Address | Yarra Promenade, Southbank, Melbourne, Australia |
| Opening date | 1997 |
| Casino type | Land |
| Owner | Crown Limited |
| Website | www.crowncasino.com.au |
Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex is a casino and entertainment precinct on the south bank of the Yarra River, in Melbourne, Australia attracting on average nearly 200,000 visitors daily. Crown Casino is a unit of Crown Limited.
The complex was designed by multiple architects including award winning Daryl Jackson and opened in 1997. The complex is one of the central features of the Southbank area in the central business district and the Crown Promenade fronts onto the waterfront as part of Southbank Promenade.
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[edit] Casino
Crown Casino opened in 1994 at the World Trade Centre on the north bank of the Yarra River, moving to the new complex at Southbank in 1997. Actress Rachel Griffiths infamously ran through the casino topless on its opening night. It is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week except on Christmas Day, Good Friday and Anzac Day. On these days Crown is closed from 4am and reopens 12 noon. It was originally founded, owned and run by Lloyd Williams until the Packer takeover by PBL in 1999. Crown Casino is the largest casino in the southern hemisphere, has a license for 350 table games and 2500 poker machines. [1]
[edit] Games
Amongst other games, Crown provides the 6 main casino games of Blackjack, Craps, Pai Gow, Poker, Baccarat and Roulette but it was also the founder of an electronic version of Roulette known as Rapid Roulette. Rapid Roulette is essentially the same as traditional roulette but rather than players placing bets on a layout, all gaming takes place on a personal electronic touch screen connected to a central roulette wheel. The benefit of this is that the player has easy access to the entire betting layout, and due to the electronic nature of the game, it is both fast and accurate. Rapid Roulette has been in use for several years, and recently Rapid Bigwheel and Rapid Sic-bo have been developed.
As well as Caribbean Stud Poker on the main gaming floor, Crown has also long offered varieties of poker including Texas Hold'em. The Crown Poker Room has recently grown with the increased popularity of poker and now encompasses a large separate space in the Crown basement known as the Poker Room.
Crown casino has 2500 poker machines on the casino floor, with values of 1 cent, 2 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, 20 Cent, 50 cent and 1 dollar available for patrons to play. The slot machines at Crown are made by Aristocrat, VLC, AGT, IGT, Konami and Stargames, with 2 Dollar machines being introduced into the VIP area.
[edit] Government oversight
The regulator overseeing the Casino's activities, and to whom grievances can be addressed to is the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation. The VCGR regularly monitors the casino's operations making sure Crown conforms to Victorian Gambling laws.[2] Several times Crown have been charged and fined for breaches of the Casino Control Act 1991.[3]
[edit] Rewards programs
The Crown Casino have a rewards program called "Crown Club" where by playing both poker machines and table games earn the player points on the card for credit or other bonuses.[4]
[edit] Entertainment complex
The Crown Entertainment Complex incorporates several nightclubs, a Village Cinema complex and multiple restaurants, fast food outlets, food courts and shops. The complex also houses "Galactic Circus", an electronic games arcade, laser 'tag' game and bowling alley. Notable features of the casino include its colourful entrance (commonly known as the 'Atrium', featuring stepped fountains and sound/light shows under the themes of the four seasons), and pyrotechnic towers running the length of the Casino promenade.
[edit] Hotels
The two hotel towers are named Crown Towers Hotel and Crown Promenade Hotel. The Crown Towers Hotel opened with the complex and is the most luxurious of the pair, located on the banks of the Yarra River overlooking the city centre, Kings Domain, Port Phillip Bay and Docklands. A speciality area called the Crystal Club Lounge is available to people who stay in some of the more expensive suites at the Hotel.
The Crown Promenade Hotel is located on Whiteman Street. A third hotel is under construction being built at the corner of Whiteman and Clarendon Streets, Southbank. The new, as yet unnamed hotel will feature similar facilities to Crown Promenade Hotel.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Official site
- CrownLimited.com
- Disability information
- Police ban crime figures from Crown Casino (from ABC News)
- Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation
- Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex is at coordinates Coordinates:
- Crown Casino Review
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