Star Entertainment Group faces severe penalties, including the possible loss of its Sydney casino licence, after a scathing report found it repeatedly breached the law, misled banks and was infiltrated by criminal elements for years.
The report, released on Tuesday after a months-long royal commission-style inquiry by the NSW gaming regulator, found the casino group was unsuitable to hold a licence.
The newly established NSW Independent Casino Commission said it had issued a show cause notice, forcing the casino group to explain within 14 days why it should not face disciplinary action.
Revocation of the casino licence and the issuing of fines are among the options.
“Doing nothing is not an option,” Chief Commissioner Philip Crawford told reporters while noting the majority of the 8000 employees “were doing the right thing”.
“It’s not a question of ‘pin the tail on the donkey’. It wasn’t one individual who was masterminding the conduct and attitude of the casino,” he said.
While some senior managers had since left, Star was still frustrating the regulator’s efforts and retained an unwillingness to be adequately transparent, Mr Crawford said.
“The institutional arrogance of this company has been breathtaking and their willingness to take risks in pursuing financial goals has been appalling,” he said.
Report author Adam Bell SC found “extremely serious governance, risk management and cultural failures” had occurred in the casino group.
In an “inherently deceptive and unethical process”, management circumvented Chinese capital flight laws and misled NAB and a foreign bank by disguising $908 million in gaming withdrawals as hotel expenses between 2013 and 2020.
The board learned of the practices in 2021, and was on notice that they and the banks had potentially been misled by management.
But it was left to the inquiry to uncover the “deeply troubling culture permeating the ranks of senior management” at Star, Mr Bell said.
The inquiry also examined Star’s delayed decision to cut ties with junket operator Suncity in late 2021.
The decision came well after Star’s regulatory affairs manager misled the gaming authority about Suncity’s private gaming room in 2017 and staff identified “serious problems” within the room, including bags of cash appearing to be exchanged in a ‘blind spot’ for closed-circuit cameras in 2018.
Management was also made aware of a Hong Kong Jockey Club report in 2019 that linked the junket operator to triad crime gangs, “large scale” money laundering and drug trafficking.
“Too often the question which was asked (by management) was ‘how can we do this?’, rather than ‘should we be doing this?’,” Mr Bell said.
Breaches of casino law included failing to tell the regulator when $3.7 billion in chips were destroyed in 2020.
However, no adverse findings were made about the board, given they had “little or no” idea of what went on “when no one is watching”.
In addition to reviewing Star’s licence, Mr Bell recommended all gamblers be forced to use electronic cards and to take breaks from pokies every three hours.
In-house lawyers should receive annual independent training on the definition of legal professional privilege, and employees should be taught to identify conflicts of interest.
The inquiry led to the resignations of managing director Matt Beiker, board chairman John O’Neill, chief financial officer Harry Theodore, chief casino officer Greg Hawkins and chief legal and risk officer Paula Martin.
Star shares entered a trading halt on Monday in anticipation of the report’s release.
Its shares closed on Friday at $2.66, nearly 40 per cent lower than this time last year, when the Bell review was called.
© AAP 2022
