The trading of The Star Entertainment Group’s shares has been placed on a halt pending the official release of Adam Bell SC’s report into the suitability of the company to hold a casino operating licence in New South Wales (NSW).
The gambling giant sought the halt after a publication of The Australian that claims that the review of the state’s gambling regulatory body – NSW Independent Liquor Gaming Authority (ILGA) – has found that the company should eventually lose its operating permit in the state unless massive reconstruction of its board is carried out along some changes in its compliance policy.
The media hub claims that the results Royal Commission’s review, led by Adam Bell SC, have been tabled to NSW officials earlier in September ahead of its public release, which is expected to take place by the end of the week. The news article published by The Australian states that a number of New South Wales Government officials were briefed on the contents of the report a week ago.
Despite the media reports, The Star Entertainment Group has informed the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) that it still has no clue about any findings included in the report. In a statement to the ASX, the gambling giant said that it still expected to receive a copy of the Royal Commission’s report, which had not been publicly released yet.
Furthermore, the Star Entertainment shared with the ASX that it had requested a trading halt pending the public release of the aforementioned report that is scheduled for September 13th, 2022. The company noted that the trading halt was requested after The Australian’s media reports regarding the contents of the review’s final report that had been held by Mr Bell SC in line with the Casino Control Act 1992. The gambling operator claimed that the trading halt was necessary, as otherwise trading in securities might take place in an uninformed market.
Media Reports of Damning Royal Commission Findings against The STar Remain Unconfirmed
Yesterday, The Australian published a piece of news stating that Bell’s investigation found The Star Entertainment unsuitable for its NSW casino licence. According to the media report, the gambling company should lose its operating permit unless its board is reshuffled and a compliance reform is undertaken. However, as mentioned above, the official publication of the review’s findings has not taken place yet.
If Adam Bell SC’s report finds the Australian gambling giant unfit to hold its NSW operating licence, the Star Entertainment will face the same unfortunate circumstances as Crown Resorts after the 2021 Bergin inquiry that eventually found that the company was unsuitable to hold its casino licence in Sydney. As Casino Guardian reported at the time, the damning findings severy delayed the opening of the much-expected Sydney’s AU$2-billion Barangaroo casino of Crown Resorts until August 2022.
Earlier this year, the review of Adam Bell SC into the company heard a number of damning pieces of evidence from the senior executives of the Star Entertainment that revealed oversight failures of the operator in terms of its VIP operations. What is worse, it turned out that the senior management members have been turning a blind eye to the issues and have been covering up the customers’ expenses with China Union Pay debit and credit cards as accommodation payments. The company was also found to have issued false invoices to purposely conceal the fact that those funds were not used to pay for hotel services but for gambling.
Since these revelations, most of The Star Entertainment’s board has stepped down, including the gambling giant’s chairman John O’Neill and chief executive officer Matt Bekier. The position of the company’s CEO is set to be taken over by Robbie Cooke later this year. Apart from that, the gambling group has unveiled that its operations will be reviewed further in order to guarantee they are regulated in a way to prevent any potential money laundering activities.
- Author
Olivia Cole
