Star Entertainment Responds to NSW Probe with Recovery Plan

It’s been an intensely challenging period for one of Australia’s largest casino operators. As a consequence of a New South Wales Independent Commission (NICC) probe, Star Entertainment have had their licence revoked for their Star Sydney property, owing to a raft of financial conduct issues.

The state regulator gave the ailing gambling firm two weeks to respond to a harrowing list of findings, which included anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures. Star, who lost their interim CEO George Hogg this week, have reacted to the inquiry report by devising a ‘comprehensive remediation plan’ which will look to address each failure raised by the Commission. Moreover, Star claimed that the new strategy would look to completely re-configure the company culture and environment and embed a fresh system of controls in relation to compliance and risk management procedures.

The Brisbane-based group might be hoping to receive a similar reprieve to the one Crown Resorts were recently granted by the regulatory body. Crown was also subjected to an investigation on its financial practices, triggered as a result of its sub-standard conduct in other establishments across its casino estate. The initial decision to strip its new Sydney casino of a gaming licence was later overturned, with a permit re-issued on a ‘conditional’ basis.

In their official inquiry response notes, Star said, ‘’We submit that the appropriate action NICC should take is to allow The Star Entertainment to continue to operate the licence, under strict supervision and being held accountable to the milestones on the remediation plan. Achieving those milestones should give NICC confidence that The Star Entertainment has restored suitability.’’

The casino giant intends to confirm how it will budget its recovery program by the end of next month and will aim to successfully complete each of the plan’s objectives by the end of 2024.