Even though a spokeswoman for Crown Casino denies that the basketball player and his black friends were subjected to racial profiling at the gambling place, he still insists that they were being discriminated.
- Aug 7, 2019
AceShowbiz - Ben Simmons had a not-so-nice experience when he hit up Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia on Monday night, August 5. The basketball star, whose father is an African American, took to Instagram Stories to claim that he and his black friends were subjected to racial profiling and denied entry by the security guard.
In a since-deleted video, Ben said that he and a group of his black friends got "checked" by security with some of them being denied entry. Meanwhile, the only white guy in the group said that security did not check him at all.
Following the video, a spokeswoman for the casino was quick to deny the claim in a statement, stressing that the security staff routinely does ID checks on anyone who appears younger than 25 years old. "Crown strenuously rejects reports that it discriminated against a group of visitors last night," the statement read. "Crown's internal security policy requires our security officers to check identification of those persons they believe to be under the age 25."
It continued to read, "This is an enhanced safeguard to ensure that no one under the age of 18 is permitted entry to the casino floor as required by law. The group subsequently provided identification and were permitted entry. Crown is an inclusive workplace."
But Ben has since doubled down on his claim on Twitter, insisting that he was racially profiled by the security. "As you know an incident happened last night at Crown and my friends and I felt personally singled out, no one likes to feel like this," he said. "I am very passionate about equality and I will always speak up even if it means having uncomfortable conversations."
Crown has not responded to the Philadelphia 76ers star's second claim.
