Queensland Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Shannon Fentiman has released a statement revealing that Star Entertainment Group has pleaded guilty to seven charges under the Casino Control Act 1982.
Star, which operates Brisbane’s Treasury Casino and the Star Gold Coast, was found to have breached section 66 of the Act. This section prohibits the purchase of gambling chips with credit cards. According to the release issued today by the Queensland government, the offences took place from June 2nd, 2017 to December 29th 2018. The breaches then occurred once again between March 23rd 2022 and April 2nd 2022.
While the company has admitted the breaches, no punishment has yet been decided with sentencing due on June 2nd, 2023.
In a statement the Queensland government said:
“The Queensland Government is committed to ensuring Queensland casinos are operated lawfully, ethically and in a way that maintains the highest standards of integrity and public confidence.”
In August of 2022, an inquiry launched by Minister Fentiman alleged that as much as AU$55 million (€38.09 million) in gambling funds from Chinese high rollers was disguised as room and entertainment charges.
The admission of the charges in Queensland is just the latest in a series of high profile incidents and rules breaches that have been discovered at Star’s casinos across Australia. The company is facing two class action lawsuits for non-compliance while in October of 2022 Star was fined AU$100 million (€64 million) for license breaches that included allowing money laundering to take place at its Sydney casino.
Image credit: John / CC BY-SA 2.0
Ciaran has been working within the Gambling Industry as a deep analyst since 2019. His deep knowledge and understanding of all the gambling regulations, and processes makes him a true asset, and an always valuable point of view for Gambling Industry News, allowing us to cover every topics from a brand new perspective.