Crown Resorts boss Ciaran Carruthers has flagged potential changes to the company’s casino operations, including redundancies, with sustained falls in foot traffic taking the shine off multiple regulatory wins.

The head of the Blackstone-owned business told this masthead on Tuesday, after Crown Sydney was deemed suitable by the NSW regulator to operate its newest casino independently, that the past three years have seen a marked drop in trading across Crown’s casinos.

“We will continually look at resources and make structural changes accordingly,” Carruthers said when asked about whether Crown would need to make further redundancies this financial year if trading does not pick up. The company employs 20,000 people across its Melbourne, Sydney and Perth precincts.

Crown Sydney has struggled to attract customers to its casino, closing one of its gaming floors last year and cutting 275 roles from its operations just 12 months after the $2.2 billion Barangaroo tower opened. Its margins currently lean heavily on its luxury hotel and its many restaurants, which are nearly always full.

Crown Barangaroo does not have poker machines and was designed by James Packer to attract high-end foreign gamblers who have not returned to Australian casinos since regulatory crackdowns were launched across Australia.

“We are taking a long hard look at the business. The current levels of demand are at a low level,” Carruthers said. “We are focused on getting the business be commercially viable long into the future.”

Carruthers said the challenges faced by the Australian casino industry were reflective of the macroeconomic issues being faced all industries. However, that didn’t mean compliant casinos were not economically viable.

He added that some of the regulations imposed on casinos should be expanded to the rest of the gambling sector. Crown Melbourne transitioned its 2600 poker machines to require carded play at great cost last year and rival The Star Entertainment Group has until August to do the same in NSW, but the requirement is yet to be imposed on pubs or clubs in either state.

“We fully embrace the need for regulatory change. It’s when these regulations are proven to be viable and have been implemented by us and are yet only imposed on us that it is a bit challenging,” Carruthers said.