Melbourne’s Crown Casino Evicts Former Tasmanian Premier from Poker Game

Tasmanian Former Premier Paul Lennon removed from Crown’s poker game after becoming increasingly aggressive at the casino table.



According to gambling news reports, the casino’s security team had to strap Lennon’s hands with cable ties, following repeated signs of aggression against other players. From 2004 until 2008, Lennon served as the Premier of the Australian island state of Tasmania, however since then he has taken up new hobbies in the form of poker.



Reportedly, Lennon expressed a somewhat hostile attitude towards a female patron from the casino, which lead to the 58 year-old being bound and escorted out of the casino. In his defense, Lennon claimed that the story went down somewhat differently.



He asserts that he was kicked out because he licked his index finger before handing his hole cards in a game of $2 Texas Hold’em. Following the quarrel, Crown Casino decided to call the police for which the authorities fined Lennon $728 for failing to leave a licensed premises.

Previous links with Crown Casino

In 2006 when Lennon was still Premier of Tasmania, an investigation was conducted by the parliament regarding possible corruption schemes. Rumors surfaced whereby Lennon had been given a penthouse right before Crown Casino’s holding company, Publishing and Broadcasting Limited, got licenses to operate in Tasmania under the Betfair name.



At the time the approval from the Tasmanian officials was worth a staggering $500 million, PLB owned a 50 percent share in the mobile betting giant Betfair. Lennon later admitted that he received unsolicited incentives for the deal and in 2008 following unfavorable polls, Lennon decided to resign his post as Premier.