{"id":219009,"date":"2022-06-27T16:37:42","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T23:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=219009"},"modified":"2022-06-27T17:32:49","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T00:32:49","slug":"star-sydney-housed-illegal-suncity-casino-within-casino-lawyers-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-sydney-housed-illegal-suncity-casino-within-casino-lawyers-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Sydney Housed \u2018Illegal\u2019 Suncity Casino Within Casino, Lawyers Claim"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-entertainment-accused-of-misleading-investors-by-denying-expose\/\">The Star Sydney<\/a> may have violated the New South Wales Unlawful Gambling Act by running an illegal \u201ccasino within a casino.\u201d That\u2019s according to lawyers charged with scrutinizing Star Entertainment\u2019s suitability to hold a gambling license in the Australian state.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_219010\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-219010\" data-style=\"width: 1280px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-219010 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/naomi.jpg\" alt=\"Star Sydney\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/naomi.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/naomi-858x483.jpg 858w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/naomi-430x242.jpg 430w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-219010\"class=\"text-description\">Naomi Sharp SC, above, reminded the inquiry during closing arguments that Star Entertainment was not \u201crunning a flower shop\u201d and should have been more alert to criminal infiltration. (Image: The Australian)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>On the final day of public hearings Monday, lawyers assisting the regulatory inquiry into Star\u2019s business practices argued the company was not fit for licensing.<\/p>\n<p>The inquiry has heard evidence that Star allowed Macau-based junket operator Suncity to secretly operate an unbranded VIP room, known as \u201cSalon 95.\u201d At the time, the junket had been identified by Australian authorities as having links to organized crime.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Lying to Regulators <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Salon 95 continued to offer high-stakes baccarat games to high rollers after then-Star CEO Matt Bekier told regulators his company had severed business links to Suncity.<\/p>\n<p>Bekier announced his resignation late March.<\/p>\n<p>In closing arguments, Naomi Sharp SC suggested those games fell afoul of state gambling laws because &#8220;The promotion of the game was not by the casino operator in those circumstances.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\"><p><strong>When Suncity staff were accepting or handling or providing chips to patrons at the service desk in Salon 95, they were assisting in the conduct of an organization of the game, and The Star in providing the premises was assisting,&#8221; <\/strong>Sharp said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;There are some pathways by which it can be said that The Star &#8230; contravened statutory provisions in permitting a pseudo-cage to be operated, not by it, in Salon 95,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<p>Sharp was responding to the suggestion by Star\u2019s lawyers that it is now suitable for licensing following a major reshuffle of corporate management.<\/p>\n<p>But Sharp also took issue with Star\u2019s assertion that its scheme to allow high-rollers to swerve China\u2019s controls on the movement of money did not \u201csignificantly elevate risk from a money laundering and counter-terrorism financing perspective.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>$900M CUP Scheme<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Star Sydney <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-entertainment-exec-admits-casino-operator-lied-to-financial-regulators\/\">allowed<\/a> Chinese high rollers to use China UnionPay (CUP) credit cards to withdraw a total of $900 million for gambling. These transactions were disguised as \u201chotel expenses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Star\u2019s assertion was \u201cdifficult to reconcile\u201d with its admission that no source-of-funds checks were conducted, Sharp said.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\"><p><strong>\u201cThe reality remains that this company was not running a flower shop, it was running casinos. And in casinos, there are well-known risks of criminal infiltration and of money laundering,\u201d <\/strong>she added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The inquiry was launched following allegations in Australian media that Star had facilitated suspected money laundering by organized criminal elements. These reports also suggested the company wooed foreign agents and fraudsters to gamble in its casinos from at least 2014 to 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Adam Bell SC, chairing the inquiry, is expected to complete his report by August 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Star Sydney may have violated the New South Wales Unlawful Gambling Act by running an illegal \u201ccasino within a casino.\u201d That\u2019s according to lawyers charged with scrutinizing Star Entertainment\u2019s suitability to hold a gambling license in the Australian state. On the final day of public hearings Monday, lawyers assisting the regulatory inquiry into Star\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":219010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69069,21,18,13592],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Star Sydney Housed \u2018Illegal\u2019 Suncity Casino Within Casino, Lawyers Claim<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Star Sydney broke the law by allowing Suncity to operate a casino withing a casino, say lawyers, who recommend loss of license.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-sydney-housed-illegal-suncity-casino-within-casino-lawyers-claim\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Star Sydney Housed \u2018Illegal\u2019 Suncity Casino Within Casino, Lawyers Claim\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Star Sydney broke the law by allowing Suncity to operate a casino withing a casino, say lawyers, who recommend loss of license.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-sydney-housed-illegal-suncity-casino-within-casino-lawyers-claim\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-27T23:37:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-28T00:32:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/naomi.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-sydney-housed-illegal-suncity-casino-within-casino-lawyers-claim\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-sydney-housed-illegal-suncity-casino-within-casino-lawyers-claim\/\",\"name\":\"Star Sydney Housed \u2018Illegal\u2019 Suncity Casino Within Casino, Lawyers Claim\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-sydney-housed-illegal-suncity-casino-within-casino-lawyers-claim\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-sydney-housed-illegal-suncity-casino-within-casino-lawyers-claim\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/naomi.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-27T23:37:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-28T00:32:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Star Sydney broke the law by allowing Suncity to operate a casino withing a casino, say lawyers, who recommend loss of license.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-sydney-housed-illegal-suncity-casino-within-casino-lawyers-claim\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-sydney-housed-illegal-suncity-casino-within-casino-lawyers-claim\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-sydney-housed-illegal-suncity-casino-within-casino-lawyers-claim\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/naomi.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/naomi.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"Naomi Sharp SC, above, reminded the inquiry during closing arguments that Star Entertainment was not \u201crunning a flower shop\u201d and should have been more alert to criminal infiltration. 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He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. 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