For James Packer, it is the $2.2 billion Cannery investment in the US which has reared its head again. As revealed on Wednesday, Packer's Crown Resorts has needed to pay the Australian Tax Office $125 million relating to that now ancient deal.

The tax office hit Crown with a tax bill of $362 million in February which it vowed to fight. So the payment of $125 million probably  won't be the end of the matter.

Crown said on Wednesday that it still disputes the ATO assessment, but has paid some money to avoid accruing further interest and penalties. The payment doesn't include any admission of liability, it said.

Indeed Packer has threatened to use all means including legal action to fight the tax office demands. It is the ghost of a deal that Packer would surely rather forget, given the Cannery investment cost his company billions in asset writedowns.

It's the second legal fire that Crown will be fighting, following an action being brought against the company's development of its Sydney flagship casino and apartments at Barangaroo.

One of the biggest contributors to the failure of the Cannery business was that it was undertaken on the cusp of the global financial crisis. But another important feature was the fact that the casinos acquired with the deal were considered second- and third-tier assets.

Meanwhile, Crown Resorts has moved on significantly over the past nine years, and now faces fresh challenges as it deals with the financial aftermath of the declines in gaming in Macau.

Although Crown notched up a $555 million one-off gain, thanks mostly to a partial sale of its shares in Macau venture Melco Crown, the operations in Macau continue to be soft. Crown's share of Melco Crown's profit was down 60 per cent in the 2016 financial year from the previous year.

Overall, Crown reported a 22 per cent decline in normalised profit after tax for the year - which was generally in line with consensus market expectations. Investors were unfazed, pushing the share price up more than 5 per cent by lunchtime.

Crown's Australian casinos delivered mixed results with main floor gaming up 5.8 per cent, but turnover from its VIP program down 8 per cent. Crown argued this was a reasonable outcome given the depressed nature of VIP gaming across Asia and the fact that it grew very strongly in the previous financial year.

While normalised earnings before interest and tax, amortisation and depreciation from both Melbourne and Perth casinos was up during the year, the growth rates slowed in the June half. The results from Perth have been negatively affected by the slower post-mining boom economy, but management described the result as 'reasonable' given the circumstances.

Ray of light

The only ray of light in Perth came on the back of Lion King show, it said.

On a more positive note, Crown's online wagering and social gaming operations hit profitability in the back end of the year, although they still sustained a small loss for the full year.

But how this business fares if there is a regulatory shakeup - resulting from agitation from Nick Xenophon - remains to be seen.

Earlier this year Packer announced a major corporate restructure of the business that will separate the international operations from the local assets.

It is a move that most analysts predict will create value, given the investment in Crown Melco has been viewed as an anchor on Crown Resorts' share price. Since the announcement of the restructure the share price has been significantly re-rated.

Additionally, Crown has also sold part of its investment in Crown Melco and used most of the proceeds to pay down debt. Crown said on Wednesday that "Macau continues to face challenges arising from softer gaming demand, which has adversely affected all casino operators".

With a pipeline of major investments in Australia - including Barangaroo - and a policy to pay out 100 per cent of its normalised profit in dividends, Crown must be looking to generate maximum cash flow from its local operations to pay for the wall of capital expenditure ahead of it.