Australian politicians are squabbling over who should investigate yesterday’s bombshell allegations about video poker machine tampering and money laundering at casino operator Crown Resorts.

Wednesday saw Independent MP Andrew Wilkie table evidence in parliament from three former Crown Melbourne staffers, who claim management forced them to tamper with pokies to disable lower bet options, enable prohibited autoplay, reduce payout ratios to below legal thresholds, while also misusing identify documents to help high-rollers avoid the scrutiny of financial watchdogs.

The Victorian Commission for Gaming and Liquor Regulation, which Wilkie’s whistleblowers had accused of being “complicit” in some of Crown’s alleged misconduct, said Wednesday that it took such matters “extremely seriously” and would “thoroughly” investigate the allegations.

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