Crown Casino’s UK online plans scuttled

Crown Casino’s ambitions to get a UK online casino license have hit a bit of a road bump.

Their trade mark application, which would have allowed them to use the Crown name for “the provision of gaming and casino services over a global computer network”, has been rejected following an objection lodged by local bingo hall operator Crown Bingo.

Crown Bingo run a bunch of bingo venues across the UK and also operate online bingo and casino games at crownbingo.com (which incidentally offers live streamed online bingo…something that may be of interest to any members of the blue-rinse set who’ve made the transition to the internet).

They seem pretty intent of protecting their crown brand. Operations director Ian Erskine said that, “we have spent many millions on building the Crown brand in UK, and we don’t see why Crown Casino should benefit from that. Practically no-one in the UK has heard of Crown Casino, unless they have been to the casino in Melbourne”.

Maybe punters in the UK aren’t familiar with Crown Casino but gamblers in just about every other major casino town would be. They run the largest casino in Australia, have a JV share in Macau’s City of Dreams whose towers bear the Crown logo and own properties in Las Vegas where they had planned to build Crown Las Vegas – a $5 billion, 575 m tall tower and casino on the Strip.  Plans to build Crown Las Vegas hit a snag when the Federal Aviation Administration said it would be too much of a hazard to the nearby airport.  They also have a presence in the UK through ownership of the famed Aspinall’s private casino club.

Point being, Crown Limited is a big and aggressive player in the casino space and their entry into the UK should concern Crown Bingo….certainly more than the dozens of other ‘Crown’ gambling brands floating around the ether already.