ralian casino giant Crown Resorts has reported an annual net profit of AUD1.9bn, almost doubling last year results. However, this was almost entirely due to the stake sale of its holdings in Lawrence Ho's Melco Resorts and Entertainment.

Crown Resorts Ltd published on Friday its annual figures, for the year ended 30 June, experiencing a 96.7% rise in net profit from the sale of its stake in Melco; without this transaction, underlying profit would have been AUD343m, decreasing 16% compared to same period prior year. This result was below analysts’ forecast.

The company’s revenue for the 12 months ending in June was AUD3.3bn, down 7.5% year-on-year basis. Further, revenue at its Australian casinos declined 13%, compared to last year.

Breaking the figures down, it all points out at the decline of VIP turnover. Whilst main floor gaming was down 1.5%, high-roller trade in Australian casinos declined nearly 50%, compared to the previous year. Crown is best-known for attracting VIP players to the Gold Coast from neighbouring Asian countries.

Crown chief executive John Alexander said this year's result reflected difficult trading conditions. Last month, 16 Crown Resorts employees were given jail sentences for gambling-related crimes by a Chinese court. He commented: "Total normalised revenue across Crown’s Australian resorts has declined by 12.7%.

"This was primarily due to the reduction in VIP play revenue. Until this is finally resolved we are stepping back from an aggressive position in the VIP market."

The other Australian gambling conglomerate Tabcorp also experienced significant losses. The firm swung to a AUD20.8m loss from a AUD170m profit in 2016. The firm was hit by a series of legal actions which cost the company over AUD120m.