‘Secretive’ Star found unfit to hold licence

THE Star Entertainment Group has been found unfit to hold a casino licence in NSW following a damning inquiry into its “confronting” conduct.

A report by Adam Bell SC into the group’s activity was released by the NSW Independent Casino Commission (NICC) on Tuesday amid alleged criminal activities at the Star in Sydney. The casino operator halted trading on the ASX on Monday.

Star admitted it had been unsuitable to hold a licence when the inquiry started. It has since made eight submissions asserting it is now suitable.

“Mr Bell did not agree with any of those eight submissions and found that Star remains unsuitable, ” NICC chief commissioner Philip Crawford said on Tuesday.

“The commission has today sent a show cause notice to Star under the provisions of section 23 of the Casino Control Act.

“In effect … it asks the Star Casino to show cause why disciplinary action should not be taken against it. Star has 14 days to respond to the show cause notice should it wish to.”

Under section 23 of the Act, a casino licence can be revoked or suspended by NICC. Fines can also be issued.

Mr Crawford said, given the report’s findings, doing nothing was “not an option” and “all options were on the table”.

“We’re left with a culture which is permeated by bad conduct and it’s a really big job to try to remediate it,” he said. “We will look at that but wait until we get their submissions before we decide what to do.”

Star Entertainment had allegedly allowed money laundering, criminals to gamble in its casino and assisted with organised crime, he said. “It’s quite confronting, the steps they went to to hide things and hide really bad behaviour.

“Not only were huge amounts of money disguised by the casino as hotel expenses, but vast sums of cash evaded anti-money laundering protocols in numerous situations, most alarmingly through Salon 95 – the secret room with a second cash cage.”

Those involved made a concerted effort to hide their conduct, which included seeking legal advice.

“Financial goals seem to have been the main driver of their conduct,” Mr Crawford said. “Then they took deliberate actions to mislead and deceive their own bank, their own board of directors and the regulator.”

Mr Crawford said Mr Bell did not make any “adverse findings” against Star’s board.

“There is no doubt the board was kept in the dark on what senior management and senior executives were doing,” he said.

“At the end of the day, they didn’t have a clue what was going on in their own company … as such they really weren’t doing their job.”