Crown lied to Victoria's gambling regulator about what it knew of China's foreign casino crackdown after its own staff were arrested overseas, a royal commission has been told.
The inquiry into whether the casino giant remains suitable to keep its licence for its Melbourne operations was on Monday told Crown "frustrated" the gambling regulator.
Crown was "not particularly fulsome" with the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation, compliance officer Timothy Bryant told the first day of public hearings.
The regulator looked into the arrests of 19 Crown staff in China in 2016. All were charged with gambling promotion offences, and remain the subject of an ongoing class action against Crown.
"At times, they (Crown) lied to me in interviews about what they were or weren't aware of," Mr Bryant said of the regulator's investigation, adding he was left "very frustrated".
He also said Crown told the regulator in August 2017 about previous advice from intelligence firm Mintz Group that China was cracking down on punters and corruption rather than casinos themselves.
But it was later revealed Mintz had in fact warned Crown about the risk of foreign casinos attempting to attract gamblers overseas.
Mr Bryant also said the regulator's requests for documents and information often met with a delayed or incomplete response.
"It seemed like we were at the back end of the priority list," he said.
The royal commission was set up by the Andrews Labor government after a NSW inquiry found Crown unsuitable to run its newly built casino in Sydney's Barangaroo .
That inquiry found Crown facilitated money laundering, partnered with junket operators with links to organised crime groups even after being made aware of these connections, and exposed staff to the risk of detention in China.
Other witnesses set to be questioned this week include Crown's head of financial crime and money laundering reporting, Nick Stokes.
Former Federal Court judge Raymond Finkelstein QC is overseeing the royal commission, which continues on Tuesday.
