Four decades on, has Perth’s big casino gamble paid off?

This was a social event unlike anything Perth had ever seen; Thousands of unusually well-dressed punters waited silently in a queue that stretched from Burswood Island down Bolton Avenue to the Great Eastern Highway.

Just a year ago, the land on which first night sleepers stood was a rubbish dump that was transformed in breathtakingly short order into the Burswood Island Casino – the Burke Labor government was anxious to classify the city for the upcoming America’s Cup – and on 30 December 1985 it was ready to open its doors.

What is less well known is that before Perth’s glitterati dressed up for the first night, there were two “major openings” in which workers involved in the construction of the $280 million Burswood Island Casino (then the third largest casino in the world) were given fake money and invited to put the army of newly trained croupiers to the test.

Among those at the forefront of that crowded curtain-raising event was 22-year-old David Littler, who had quit his job as a boilermaker at the Naval Base months earlier to learn how to deal cards and spin a roulette wheel, joining 3,000 people drawn to the Casino just as young people are drawn to the mining industry.

“We had only seen gaming tables and all the glamor that goes with it in movies,” says current playground manager Littler, one of nine employees who have been with the organization since its inception.

“It was especially exciting for me because I couldn’t wait to get out from under the hot tin roofs and return home with clean hands.

“We had trained so hard – we had been going to classes in St George’s Terrace for months – and there had been two soft openings but we were all still a bit nervous for the big night.

Littler looked like a million bucks that night – along with all the other dealers – because they were dressed and drilled by former Victoria Park international model Lorette Spicer, whose job in the casino’s early years was to ensure Perth’s sophisticated style matched the glamor crowds knew from James Bond movies.

“The architects had given the casino an Art Deco look, so it was my job to match those uniforms with the decor,” Spicer says.

“They wanted the dealers to wear aprons, which is quite difficult when you’re hiring so many people. And let’s face it, we’re Australians and naturally we don’t show off.”

“I would stand at the top of the stairs while the dealers came and examined them before they went to the floor.

“And if their nails were chipped or broken, I’d send them back down again.”

Meanwhile, Spicer’s close friend Ann Roth was chattering away backstage as the casino’s public relations and events manager.

Ahead of the opening, Roth and the driving force behind the casino (prominent Western Australian businessman Dallas Dempster, who has formed an alliance with Malaysian gaming operators Genting Berhad) had visited gambling operations around the world to prepare for any problems that might arise.

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“Cheats and underworld types occur early in casino life for obvious reasons,” says Roth.

“Thankfully, we did not experience any of these problems. I spent most of my time dealing with the Construction Workers Federation, which caused many problems during the construction of the casino and delayed the opening of the hotel.”

Dress standards were so strict in the casino’s early days that former advertising executive Diane Whitely recalls arriving for a business meeting and being shown around by security guards.

“The fact that I showed up in jeans and wasn’t going to postpone the meeting scared them,” Whitley says.

“I had just moved from Sydney and told them people there wore jeans to the opera. They knew what to do, so the manager hired two security guards to come with us.”

Within a year of opening, those strict rules were relaxed, Spicer says, as many wealthy guests arrived in clothing that was much more luxurious than what locals wore, but did not comply with the dress code, such as logo-less sneakers.

“Things came to a head when I tried to explain to a Japanese man that he couldn’t have a logo on his sneakers,” he says.

In the four decades since, the casino has undergone various ownership and name changes – it is now Crown Perth, in line with its sister complex, Crown Melbourne – and has survived many damaging legal wrangles, evolving from a gambling mecca into a full-blown entertainment district with three hotels, a range of dining options and a 2,300-seat theater attracting a wide range of crowds.

A key player in this transformation is Judy Vince, who moved from Tasmania in 2009 to manage the Burswood Dome, which has hosted some of the world’s biggest artists since its opening in 1989 (most famously Michael Jackson in 1996).

Vince is brimming with stories about his time overseeing the celebrity foray, like the day in 2014 when he was told Lady Gaga wanted to “enter” her army of fans, a.k.a. “Little Monsters.”

Lady Gaga strolled through Meltropol’s lobby in her skyscraper-high stilettos when she entered the gift shop and security slammed the doors to keep worshipers out, leaving the American superstar trapped inside with Perth communications expert Kylee Payne.

“I tried to leave, but Lady Gaga insisted I stay,” says Payne.

“We browsed together as he threw item after item onto the store counter. He then walked out of the store to greet his Little Monsters and left the babysitter to play.”

Two years later, Vince received another call from Live Nation to announce that Prince would be arriving after the RAC Arena for one of his famous after-party sets at Crown nightclub Eve.

“It’s late and everyone’s gone,” he says.

“There were only 30 of us left. He came around 14:00 in the afternoon, sat at the piano and said, ‘I want you to turn off your phones and just listen.’

“For the next hour he performed all his best-known songs. He died just a few weeks later. It was truly incredible.”

Vince’s focus in recent years has been musicals; The Crown Theater is now one of the area’s top attractions.

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“When I started, we would do one or maybe two musicals a year. Now we do five, six, even seven musicals a year,” says Vince.

“Perth is a really big market for musicals now, which means we’ll get all the big productions.”

Crown’s expansion continues with the opening of a new food precinct called Urban Food Precinct in February, with upscale Nobu and Rockpool about to be joined by popular foreign names such as Side Piece Pizza, hip sushi emporium Tekka Bar and Burgers by ES.

“The theater has a symbiotic relationship with the other offerings of the Crown,” says Vince.

“Audiences come for a great show and stick around to eat or come for lunch or dinner and realize there is first-class entertainment as well.”

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