Summary:
According to the New South Wales Casino Commission’s report on the Star Entertainment Group’s business activities, the company is not fit to operate a casino in Australia. According to the report, Star hid their illegal activities from regulators, and allowed money laundering and organised crime to become commonplace at the casino.
According to the New South Wales Casino Commission, the Star Entertainment Group is not fit to operate a casino in Australia.
Philip Crawford, the Commission chief, said that the report made for a sad reading and highlighted Star Entertainment’s “scant regard” for the minimization of gambling harms. He said that in a statement.
The arrogance of this company has been incredible. Their willingness to take risks in pursuit of their financial goals has been terrible. The Star’s culture remains our major concern. There doesn’t seem to be a short-term fix.
He said that Star had taken steps to hide their illegal activities from regulators, and that they had allowed money laundering and organized crime to become commonplace at the casino. Crawford stated that the Commission discovered that some of the illegal activity continued after the public inquiry began.
They tried to hide their conduct after ignoring the risk inherent in their conduct. Financial goals seemed to have been the main driver of their conduct.
According to the report, it stated:
During and before the period being reviewed, a number of extremely serious governance, risk management and cultural failures of The Star Entities occurred. The culture of business goals taking priority over compliance goals is what led to the failure to report in relation to China Union Pay and Suncity in Salon 95. The authority was considered an impediment to be worked around by The Star. The authority was misled by the Star about the CUP Process.
There are no recommendations as to what changes Star can make to become a suitable casino operator according to the report. It states that the casino operator has 14 days to respond to the findings.
Crawford said that Star admitted at the beginning of the inquiry that it was unsuitable to hold a casino license, but that it had made eight submissions as to why it was now a suitable operator. The report found that there were no acceptable reasons to review the Commission’s opinion that Star should not be allowed to operate a casino.
Crawford talked about the individual directors and board members.
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.
The people responsible for the illegal activities made a lot of efforts to cover their tracks.
They deceived their own bank, their own board of directors and the regulators.
Crown took 18 months to correct its issues and satisfy the regulators that it was a suitable operator, according to Crawford. It will take Star a long time to address its issues, according to him.
There is still an unwillingness to show the right level of transparency, despite the fact that we still have inspectors down there very frequently.
Kevin Anderson said he would give Star an opportunity to respond first, but that he would accept the recommendations of the report.
We are disgusted with the operations of this particular company. The disregard for the rules and regulations they should be operating under is breathtaking. The people of New South Wales expect casinos to operate at the highest standards, and it is clear that Star has not been doing that. It is outrageous to be able to still operate on a day-to-day basis.
The interim chairman of Star said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange that the company would respond to the findings within 14 days.
The news comes after it was revealed that Star had hid more than 40 million dollars in gambling funds from Chinese high rollers as room and entertainment charges.