Introduction
Crown Casino Melbourne is located on the south bank of the Yarra River in Melbourne Australia. It initially opened in 1994 on the north bank of the river and relocated to the south side in 1997 and today is still one of the central features of the Southbank precinct. The entire complex is the size of two city blocks making it the largest casino in the Southern Hemisphere. It also hosts four hotels, and it is accessible by tram routes all passing by Melbourne City Centre and Southern Cross railway station.
About Crown Casino
On the opening night, the actress Rachel Griffiths infamously ran through the casino topless in protest of the project. Crown Casino is open 24/7 except for Christmas Day, Good Friday and Anzac Day when it closes between 4 am to midday.
They have a license for 540 tables and 3500 poker machines with values ranging from one cent to one dollar. They also offer other games like craps, blackjack, poker pai gow, baccarat and Roulette. This casino was also the first to introduce an electronic version of Roulette known as Rapid Roulette. Added to their selection of games is the electronic Vegas Star Roulette and Rapid Baccarat. The slot machines at Crown Casino are by Ainsworth, Aristocrat, IGT, Konami, Shuffle Master and WMS Gaming.
The Crown also hosts the Aussie Millions, currently the wealthiest Poker event in the Southern Hemisphere. In 2013 it became home to the World Series of Poker Asia Pacific, the latest expansion of the WOSP.
Incidents at the Crown Casino
In 2013 a player who had access to Crown Casinos security feeds via an accomplice cheated the casino out of $33 million. Two years later Rochelle Nolan and de facto wife of comedian Russell Gilbert committed suicide in one of the hotel rooms, and 2016 eighteen employees of Crown Casino were detained by Chinese police accused of gambling crimes.
Crown Casino has also had notable guests, including Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Katy Perry, Kim Kardashian, One Direction, Tiger Woods and Roger.