The Crown Sydney Casino will be reducing its operating hours and cutting 180 jobs, with it failing to attract enough visitors to the resort, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
It was just two months ago when the casino was forced to close one of its gaming floors because of a lack of footfall; now, the operator has found that it does not have the capacity of visitors to warrant being opened 24/7, which has led to nearly 200 jobs being cut.
The casino’s new opening hours include being closed between 2am and 10am from Monday to Thursday and on Fridays it will operate between 10am and 4am. Meanwhile, on the weekend, it will open at 2pm, closing at 4am on Saturdays and 2am on Sundays.
Since opening in August 2022, 275 jobs have been cut from Crown’s Barangaroo premises, having faced expensive costs owing to anti-money laundering failings, among other things.
Crown Sydney’s CEO, Mark McWhinnie, has said the business will look to redeploy as much of the affected staff as possible to its other casinos in Perth and Melbourne, saying: “Our priority is to support the 180 impacted team members alongside their union as they determine their next steps.”
Just over two weeks ago, Crown Casino workers had threatened to go on strike ahead of the Melbourne Cup, asking for fair wage increases, higher pay for weekend and public holiday work, better rosters for work-life balance and payment progression based on service.
