The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) has fined Crown Melbourne $2 million for allowing 242 people who had self-excluded from gambling to place bets at the casino over an 8-month period between October 2023 and May 2024.

VGCCC Chair Fran Thorn said: “It is an offence under the Casino Control Act 1991 (Vic) to allow an excluded person, including anyone who has self-excluded, to enter, remain or gamble in the casino. It also contravenes Crown Melbourne’s obligation to protect people at risk of gambling harm.

“Those who self-exclude must be able to trust that gambling providers will take all reasonable steps to enforce their decision to avail themselves of this harm prevention initiative.

“By allowing people who have self-excluded to enter the casino and gamble, Crown has put them at risk of experiencing further gambling harm. However, it is also clear that a number of these self-excluded patrons are going to considerable lengths to avoid detection and break their exclusion requirements.”

The self-exclusion breaches were detected through VGCCC’s ongoing monitoring of the casino’s operations. The Commission determined the breaches were due to system and control failures rather than deliberate or egregious disregard by Crown of its regulatory obligations.

“Accordingly, the Commission has issued a direction to Crown to engage an independent expert to assess the effectiveness of, and make recommendations for improving, the management of its self-exclusion program. In due course, Crown will be required to implement the independent expert’s recommendations,” Ms Thorn said.

In April this year, the Commission directed Crown Melbourne to implement a transformation plan to continue its reform and remediation following the findings of the Finkelstein Royal Commission.

The Commission acknowledges Crown has taken some steps to strengthen its controls for policing exclusion orders, and introduced measures to improve its monitoring activities, physical security, use of technology and training of staff.

“The VGCCC is committed to ensuring Crown continues its reform efforts,” Ms Thorn said.

The organisers of Regulating the Game 2025 have announced that Jamieson O’Reilly, CEO and Lead Hacker at Dvuln, will deliver a keynote titled “Oceans 11 Downunder: How I Hacked Australia’s Two Biggest Casinos (Legally)” at the 2025 edition of the conference in Sydney.

The organisers said: “In this eye-opening keynote, Jamieson will take attendees behind the scenes of how he legally hacked into two of Australia’s largest casinos, uncovering serious vulnerabilities in their digital infrastructure. Casinos are known for their robust security measures, but as they increasingly rely on interconnected systems and digital processes, new vulnerabilities emerge that even the most fortified establishments must contend with.”

Mr O’Reilly added: “When most people think of a casino, they think of high security, underground vaults, and an overall intimidating complexity. But with great complexity comes great security consequences. It’s easy to think of a casino as one big money-making machine. But the reality is, under the hood, casinos are run by many individual moving parts, all relying on each other equally to function.”

O’Reilly’s talk will delve into the specific techniques he used to breach these casinos’ defences, exposing weaknesses in their systems, surveillance networks, customer databases and backend operations. Although both casinos have since patched the vulnerabilities, Jamieson’s experience highlights the broader challenges facing the gaming industry in the digital age, where the expanding attack surface presents real risks.

Paul Newson, event organiser and Principal at Vanguard Overwatch, said: “With his incredible experience in ethical hacking and cybersecurity, Jamieson’s keynote is set to be a highly anticipated session of the conference. His revelations about how he legally breached the security of two major casinos provide crucial lessons for the entire gambling sector.

“As the industry becomes more digitally interconnected, understanding the risks and learning how to defend against cyber threats is more important than ever.”

As a leader in offensive security, he has conducted countless red team exercises and adversary simulations against some of the hardest targets in the world, from banks and casinos to government agencies, to test their resilience against Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs).

His expertise helps organisations uncover critical vulnerabilities and build robust defences against highly skilled attackers.

Jamieson is a member of the CREST Approved Australasia Council, underscoring his leadership in the cybersecurity community in addition to this, Jamieson is also a co-author of the post-quantum encryption specification PPQM, demonstrating his knowledge in advanced cryptography and defensive security.

His keynote will not only offer an insider’s view into casino security vulnerabilities but will also provide practical insights into how businesses can strengthen their defences against ever-evolving digital threats. The session is essential for anyone in the gaming sector looking to safeguard their digital infrastructure in a connected world where no system is truly secure.

The A-Leagues, the top level of football in Australia and New Zealand, has extended its official media data partnership with sports AI and tech giant Stats Perform and added the new Opta Search and Opta Stream to unlock new sponsor inventory and deepen engagement for fans of its flagship men’s and women’s competitions.

Stats Perform’s trusted Opta data feeds, widgets and tools will continue to power A-Leagues’ official fan platforms including aleagues.com.au, the Official A-Leagues app and A-Leagues social media channels, including its popular YouTube videos.

The extended partnership sees the addition of Opta Stream, which is set to supercharge fan engagement and sponsorship across A-Leagues’ match centres by providing rolling, automated, sponsored visuals of real-time game stats, live text commentary, milestones and insights, powered by Opta data feeds.

It also includes Opta Search, the third part of OptaAI Studio, Stats Perform’s set of tools to put advanced sports storytelling at the fingertips of sports content professionals. Opta Search will enable A-Leagues’ editors, presenters and communications teams to enrich their coverage with enthralling milestones and insights across games, teams and seasons from Opta’s enormous statistics database.

Stats Perform’s products will be used across the Isuzu UTE A-League Men which begins on October 18, and the Ninja A-League Women which kicks off on November 1.

“Our leagues are rich in stories that Stats Perform and Opta make it easy for us to tell our fans, connecting them more deeply to our teams and players,” said Ned Negus, Chief Commercial Officer at the A-Leagues. “By leveraging Opta’s real-time data, insights and products, our content team will be able to showcase key statistics, player performances and milestones in a visually stunning and informative manner, and our commercial teams are delighted with the additional high quality inventory created for our sponsors.”

“We’re pleased to meet A-Leagues’ requirements for detailed, trusted, reliable data and products to drive fan and sponsor growth across the Isuzu UTE A-League Men and Ninja A-League Women,” said Steve Xeller, CRO at Stats Perform. “I’m particularly excited about their addition of Opta Stream and Opta Search – they’re among our newest AI-powered products and have already broken records for customers in Europe, boosting them to the top of search engines and attracting enormous user numbers. We can’t wait to see what they achieve for A-Leagues,” he added.

Opta Search is part of Stats Perform’s new OptaAI Studio, which also comprises Opta Graphics and Opta Live, used by pro teams, colleges, media and broadcasters across the world.

Together with Opta Stream, Opta Search leverages Stats Perform’s detailed, trusted Opta data feeds to help tell more vivid stories and uses automation and AI to empower large and small teams to be more productive, whilst growing sports audiences and sponsors.