According to an inquiry carried out by Liquor and Gaming New South Wales, Star Entertainment’s Sydney gambling venue is not fit to hold a casino license.
In one case, a gambler flagged for potential money laundering was allowed to turn over $2 billion through the casino
Throughout the course of the 36-day inquiry into Star Entertainment’s activities, it was revealed that Star enabled suspected money laundering, fraud, organized crime, and foreign interference at Star Sydney over a prolonged period of time.
This included an illegal cage run at the casino by gang-linked junket Suncity while more than AU$900 million (€602.8 million) was illegally transacted through the casino using Chinese debit cards.
The regulator also uncovered evidence to suggest that Star Entertainment and senior management staff had worked covertly to stop the public hearings from taking place. Staff lied to banks and did not fully assist the inquiry as is required by law.
In her closing submissions to the review on Tuesday, Naomi Sharp SC, said:
“We submit that the evidence in the public hearing establishes that the Star is not suitable to hold the casino license and that its close associate Star Entertainment is not suitable either.
There has not yet been the period of deep reflection which of course will be necessary in order to develop a concrete plan about what … can bring these corporations into a position of suitability.”
Sharp went on to urge Adam Bell SC, who is leading the inquiry, to adopt the same approach taken in the Crown Resorts inquiry. She also added that Star and its Sydney casino were only at the start of their examination of “what has gone wrong within these organizations”.
According to the inquiry’s findings, there was a distinct lack of supervision in Star’s international VIP team, headed by John Chong and then Marcus Lim. This was particularly true in relation to high-value customers or high-rollers as they are also known. In one instance, a Chinese high-roller who had been flagged for potential money laundering activity was allowed to turn over AU$2 billion (€1.3 billion) at the venue. During this time, Star staff provided fake source of funds documents to the Bank of China in Macau.
Sharp also went on to outline other failings discovered during the inquiry including a failure to escalate clearly identified risks and the underpayment of gaming duty on revenues.
Since the inquiry began, Star has removed several key members of senior management including chief executive, Matt Bekier, chief financial officer, Harry Theodore, chief casino officer, Greg Hawkins, chief legal and risk officer, Paula Martin and board chairman, John O’Neill.
The inquiry continues.
Image credit: llee_wu / CC BY-ND 2.0
Olivia has worked as an editor and writer for major brands across multiple niches. She now focuses on the iGaming and sports betting industries.