Some will be disappointed that billionaire James Packer is set to make a fortune from the sale of scandal-ridden Crown Resorts.

The heir to the Sydney media and gambling dynasty will net $3.26 billion for his 37 per cent stake in the company, which operates casinos in Perth, Melbourne and soon in Sydney, as part of a takeover bid by New York-based private equity investor Blackstone.

The windfall is a lot more than Mr Packer expected only a few months ago and some will say more than he deserves given the failures of corporate governance at Crown which were first exposed by the Herald and then confirmed by two separate inquiries over the past two years.

An inquiry by the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA), headed by Patricia Bergin, and a royal commission in Victoria, headed by Ray Finkelstein, showed evidence of criminal infiltration, money laundering, deliberate underpayment of tax and an irresponsible approach to minimisation of gambling harm. Rather than own up, Crown fought the inquiries all the way.

While Mr Packer was not a director for most of the period when these breaches occurred, his large stake gave him enormous power over the company’s management.

During the NSW inquiry Mr Packer said he was suffering from severe mental illness, could not recall key events and admitted he acted shamefully in making personal threats against a business partner during a privatisation bid in 2015.

He is selling out now partly because the Victorian government decided last November that he should sell down his stake to 5 per cent by 2024 to address what Mr Finkelstein called his “harmful influence” over the company.

While Mr Packer’s reputation has been shredded, he will receive about the same price per share as he was expecting in 2018 when he first tried to sell to Macau-based Melco.

The 2018 proposal which could have linked Crown to criminal “triads” in the former Portuguese colony, was one of the factors that triggered the Bergin inquiry.

Crown has certainly paid a price. The entire board and management of Crown has been sacked or resigned. AUSTRAC, the body which polices money laundering laws, has launched an investigation and is expected to slap big fines on Crown. The company is also facing two class actions from shareholders who say it is to blame for the 30 per cent fall in the share price since 2018.