Star ‘spying’ on diary of special manager

Star Entertainment was spying on the diary entries of special casino manager Nicholas Weeks, including his meetings with lawyers, as part of a “process of preparing for war” with the regulator, a NSW inquiry has been told.

Mr Weeks, who has been running the casino since October 2022 when an earlier inquiry by Adam Bell SC concluded that Star had set up an “inherently deceptive and unethical process”, told a new inquiry into its suitability to regain its Sydney casino licence that there had been pushback on reforms.

The NSW Independent Casino Commission announced the latest inquiry, also to be done by Mr Bell, in February.

The inquiry heard evidence on Monday that Star was still falling short in many areas. This included a widespread practice of falsifying records of interactions between customer service staff and gamblers and malfunctioning cash machines that allowed customers to defraud Star of millions of dollars.

Casper Conde, counsel assisting the inquiry, outlined evidence that Star was becoming increasingly hostile to Mr Weeks and his efforts to enforce compliance at Star.

He referred to a message from Star chairman David Foster last year to then chief executive Robbie Cooke that the company’s response to Mr Weeks’ findings could be “catalyst to get rid” of him and cause “fireworks”.

Mr Weeks said that earlier this year Mr Cooke and Mr Foster had found out about meetings with his lawyers and regulators scheduled for February by “somehow accessing my diary”.

Mr Foster in a text message to Mr Cooke said the meetings showed Mr Weeks and regulators were “prepping for war and we better do the same”.

Mr Weeks said he found it “extraordinary” that Star would be monitoring his diary entries and investigating people he was meeting with.

A further message from Mr Foster to Mr Cook in February mentioned establishing grounds for a potential class action from shareholders against Mr Weeks and the regulator.

Mr Weeks said he also found it extraordinary that the “chairman of the listed company and the CEO were exchanging messages contemplating a class action from shareholders against me personally and the NICC in circumstances where their public position and the position with me is that they’re working cooperatively to address deficiencies they need to address”.

Mr Weeks told the inquiry that NICC chief commissioner Philip Crawford had lost confidence in Mr Cooke late last year to push through a remediation plan for Star.

Mr Conde said whether Star would be found suitable to run the casino would depend on factors including “character, honesty, and integrity” and whether it had a “sound and stable financial background.”

Mr Weeks said an investigation by the Liquor and Gaming Office had found widespread falsification of records that were supposed to show that patrons did not gamble for more than three hours without interaction with a staff member.

“When surveillance footage was looked at it became clear that there was no interaction as was required and the record that they had on the Star system and the interaction was false,” he said.

Another serious issue involved a defect in “ticket in, cashout” machines that allowed customers to reuse winning tickets after they were mistakenly returned. “Over a six week period very large amounts of cash were provided to customers in circumstances where they should not have received because of the defect,” said Mr Weeks. “The upshot was that about $3.2m had been paid in from the casino by customers who had detected this fraud either inadvertently or deliberately.”

Mr Weeks said both incidents revealed there was “an absence of people speaking up”.

“Until a new leadership takes hold, these type of incidents may continue,” he said.

Along with Mr Weeks, witnesses at the inquiry will include former chief financial officer Christina Katsibouba, former chief customer and product officer George Hughes, ex-chief legal officer Betty Ivanoff, former company secretary Nawal Silfani, patron liaison manager Ron Wagemans, head of risk Eileen Vuong, and head of gaming Peter Humphreys.

Former CEO Robbie Cooke is expected to appear as a witness later this month.

Chair David Foster, who is currently serving as CEO, is also set to be a witness.