Billionaire James Packer is cutting back his involvement in the day-to-day running of his Australian gaming operations to focus on building a global casino and technology business.
In the biggest management shake-up of the Packer family empire since father Kerry died 10 years ago, Mr Packer (pictured) handed over the chairmanship of Crown Resorts to close adviser and former investment banker Rob Rankin.
The hand-over reflects Mr Packer's gradual move away from Australia. 
He singled out the company's new Las Vegas development and opportunities to expand into online gaming as two areas he will focus on.
Mr Packer has spent more time outside of Australia in recent years. When he is not travelling, he divides his time between Los Angeles, where his children live, and Israel, which has been the focus of new investment opportunities in cyber terrorism and other tech start-ups.
The gruelling travel schedule was a key factor in the decision. Mr Packer sold his Vaucluse six-storey mansion for $70 million in early   August and has listed his Bondi Beach apartment for sale.
The decision is a pivotal moment in the history of one of the country's most powerful families and marks the first time a Packer will not be directly overseeing the family's main Australian company.
It coincided with an earnings slump at Crown Resorts, the company Packer built into a multibillion-dollar gaming empire after selling the family's media interests.
Mr Rankin runs Mr Packer's private company, Consolidated Press Holdings. Mr Packer will take up a new executive director position, and retain a board seat, allowing him to focus on building $10 billion of casinos around the world.
"I think he's going to be freed up to be even more effective and more involved on the things that are going to make a real difference to us over the next five to ten years," Mr Rankin said from Dubai.
UBS chairman Matthew Grounds, one of Mr Packer's closest advisers, estimates the gaming mogul has added between $4 billion and $6 billion in value to Crown over the last decade.
"Over this period he has made some great capital allocation decisions, most notably investing in gaming both here and Asia but also exiting traditional media and reinvesting into online businesses and financial services," said Mr Grounds.
"With that investment track record, chairing meetings is probably not the best use of his time."
Crown is juggling a slowdown at its investments in Macau, the world's biggest gaming hub, patchy growth from its Australian casinos and a year-long delay on its Barangaroo project in Sydney, which will push the opening date back into the next decade.
Shares in Crown, half owned by Mr Packer, initially fell nearly 6 per cent in early trade, its biggest intraday loss since the global financial crisis in 2009, before paring losses to close down 43Â¢ or 3 per cent at $13.09. The shares are down 10 per cent over the past year.
Part of the sell-off was triggered after Crown missed a full-year profit forecast, with net profit down 18 per cent to $525 million as an increase in corporate costs, a poor performance from Macau and moderate growth from its Perth casino weighed on the share price.
While Crown lost a bid to develop a $2 billion casino complex at Brisbane's Queen's Wharf in   July, it has other casino developments in the works: Macau's Studio City complex due to open in   October; the Las Vegas Alon resort in 2018 and Crown Sydney by the end of 2020.
Crown is hopeful Japan will push ahead in opening up its casino industry, although any liberalisation of the market is unlikely to come until 2016.
"We're not running around trying to develop dozens of projects," said Mr Rankin.
"I think our main focus is Sydney, Vegas and Melbourne, but in the right circumstances we would stretch for Japan as well in partnership with Melco Crown. As a longer-term proposition, Japan excites us."
Arnhem Investment Management partner Theo Maas, a shareholder in Crown, said: "I think Sydney and Vegas is enough on their plate for the next five to 10 years now and I think they have chosen the right high-end concept for both markets.
"They obviously have a very good database to fly their high rollers around while continuing to chase some of the big whales in the market."