By Stuart Condie
SYDNEY–Star Entertainment Group Ltd. has been fined 100 million Australian dollars (US$67.7 million) for the second time in less than two months over a range of issues including actively courting gamblers banned in other Australian states.
The ASX-listed casino and resort operator was also told Friday by the attorney general of Australia’s Queensland state that casino licenses at two of its properties will be suspended if it didn’t take sufficient remedial action over its management and operations.
“It is clear that there have been major failings by the Star group and its entities. I was appalled at the extent of the actions of The Star in welcoming excluded persons to their casinos and the exorbitant incentives on offer for questionable gamblers,” said Shannon Fentiman, Queensland’s attorney general.
Queensland’s state government ruled in October that Star was unsuitable to hold a casino license in the state, mirroring a similar finding in neighboring New South Wales.
That same month, NSW fined Star A$100 million after a state regulator found that vast sums of cash evaded anti-money-laundering protocols. The NSW regulator also found that Star offered free alcohol to VIPs as an inducement to gamble and allowed vulnerable patrons to bet for more than 24 hours at a time.
Among the findings of the review in Queensland was that there were serious deficiencies with Star’s anti-money-laundering program that persisted over several years.
The Queensland government on Friday appointed an independent manager at Star’s cost to monitor operations. It also suspended Star’s Brisbane and Gold Coast casino licenses for 90 days but deferred the measure until Dec. 1, 2023, due to the fact that Star employs so many people, giving Star a chance to clean up its act.
Star reported A$1.53 billion in revenue in its most recent fiscal year, which ended June 30. It slipped to a A$198.6 million loss after writing down the value of its Sydney casino following a year of Covid-19 disruptions and regulatory problems.
Write to Stuart Condie at stuart.condie@wsj.com
