[4] In December 2007, Australian gambling company Crown Limited agreed to buy Cannery Casino Resorts (CCR) for $1.75 billion.

However, when a new government took office, President Maithripala Sirisena cancelled all three casino licenses awarded by the previous administration; including the Crown Resorts project.

[11] On 26 June 2015, Crown officially announced that the new $6 billion hotel, called Alon Las Vegas, was to be located on the former New Frontier site and to open in 2018.

In December 2020, due to ongoing inquiry in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Crown Sydney was granted a temporary liquor licence and allowed to open its accommodation, dining and bar facilities - pending court findings expected at the beginning of February 2021; this licence was valid until 30 April 2021 and did not allow for the opening of any gaming floors and/or associated gambling activities in any capacity.

[40] In April 2016, the company's joint venture with Matthew Tripp, CrownBet pleaded guilty to five counts of breaching laws by publishing illegal betting advertising that offered inducements for NSW residents to gamble.

[45] The investigation, which was assisted by The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald newspapers (which became sister businesses of Nine Network after Nine Entertainment acquired Fairfax Media in 2018) and featured comments from former Crown employees, also questioned Crown's relationships with certain junket operators — the middlemen who help recruit VIP gamblers and act as credit agents to get around China's capital controls — that have been linked to Hong Kong's triads.

[46] The investigation also revealed the existence of an arrangement with Australia's Department of Home Affairs to speed up processing of short-stay visa applications by Crown's VIP gamblers.

[47] Crown denied the report's claims, publishing advertisements in local newspapers calling the investigation “a deceitful campaign” that relied on “unsubstantiated allegations, exaggerations, unsupported connections and outright falsehoods.”[48] Federal and state authorities, including the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, have opened probes into the allegations.

[52][53] In March 2022 the Royal Commission issued its final report[54] concluding that the company is unsuitable to run its Perth casino, but was given two years to return to suitability under the watch of an independent monitor.

[55] Crown Resorts responded in a statement released to the Australian Stock Exchange, acknowledging the findings and promising to work with the government to reach compliance.

[57] In December 2023, the company launched an internal investigation into allegations that its chief executive officer, Ciaran Carruthers, had intervened and permitted patrons to gamble despite them having been blocked by security.

The first alleged incident occurred on 25 November 2023 when Carruthers was claimed to have allowed an intoxicated woman access the Victoria facility's gaming floor.

[60] The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission had been conducting its own probe into the alleged actions of Carruthers but told the Australian Financial Review it is satisfied with Crown Resorts Limited’s handling of the matter.