James Packer has unleashed on gambling ­critics and Australian governments, which he says are damaging his Crown Resorts business.

The Crown chairman is also complaining about “high” levels of taxation being paid by the casino group in Australia.

Speaking Crown’s annual meeting in Perth, Mr Packer unveiled his woes.

They also included cries that weak consumer confidence and a lucky streak among VIP customers at Crown casinos in Melbourne and Perth had hurt the company’s performance.

“Despite what some people will tell you, our business is not a licence to print money,” he said.

“Our VIP businesses are ­almost $100 million below the theoretical result less than four months into the financial year due to an adverse win rate or, put simply, bad luck.

“The punters are killing us.”

Mr Packer said he felt Crown should be better treated by Australian governments, as it is “not a tobacco company”.

He claimed that as Crown was one of the largest taxpayers in the country, he had become “sick of governments” asking the group to invest and employ more people only to move the “goalposts”.

“We have and continue to ­invest billions of dollars in world-class tourism infrastructure on the basis of contracts and agreements we have with governments,” Packer said.

“It is not acceptable for governments to turn around and change the rules with total disregard to the impact those changes may have on our investment and our staff.”

The casino boss says Crown invested more than $2.8 billion in tourism-related infrastructure in Australia in just the last eight years, but has not seen the expected returns.

“It amazes me that some so-called expert commentators view us as a social ill ... we are a proud Australian business and I would suggest that our critics are blinded by their prejudices that prevent them from having an open mind or judging us on our merits,” he said.