Crown Resorts executive chairman John Alexander has angrily denounced allegations of poker machine tampering and drug use at Melbourne’s Crown casino as “outrageous and unfounded”.

Speaking at Crown’s annual general meeting in Melbourne, Mr Alexander emphatically rejected the allegations made under parliamentary privilege by independent Tasmania MP Andrew Wilkie.

Mr Wilkie alleged Melbourne’s Crown Casino deliberately tampered with poker machines, and turned a blind eye to drug use and family violence.

“I am angered and disappointed by the outrageous and unfounded allegations levelled at us by Mr Wilkie, which unfairly smeared Crown by asserting that we have acted improperly in relation to our gaming machines and operations,” Mr Alexander told shareholders.

“We also do not improperly manipulate our gaming machines. Any employee found breaching our codes and practices would face severe disciplinary consequences.”

Mr Wilkie’s allegations flowed from information he said was provided by whistle-blowers who worked at the casino.

James Packer, Crown’s largest shareholder who recently returned to the company board, also rejected Mr Wilkie’s allegations.

“Andrew Wilkie throws something into the parliament which is a lie,” he said.

Packer laments Crown strategy

About 300 investors attended the AGM at the Crown Palladium

Mr Packer conceded the company’s retreat from Asia was disappointing, particularly given the arrest and jailing of staff from the joint-venture casino in Macau.

“The reality [was] that 16 staff were put in jail last year and Crown takes the welfare of its employees very seriously, very, very seriously and that forced the Crown directors’ hands in relation to Macau,” he said.

Mr Packer said Crown had an international strategy in 2006, but no longer had one.

“In terms of Australian companies that have gone overseas and come back with their tail between their legs, I think we are at the top of that list,” Mr Packer said.

Mr Packer said the company was affected by the detention of 19 employees, who later pleaded guilty to charges of illegal promotion of gambling in mainland China.

“That forced the Crown directors’ hand in a large degree in relation to Macau,” he said.

Crown began selling its interests in its joint-venture casinos in Macau in December 2016, two months after the first detention of the company’s employees in China.

Mr Packer told the meeting that he grows more confident each day in the prospects for Crown’s $2.4 billion casino-resort project at Barangaroo in Sydney.

High Sydney property prices were underpinning a lift in the volumes of high-rolling VIP gamblers, he said.