{"id":311196,"date":"2024-02-19T08:41:10","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T14:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=311196"},"modified":"2024-02-19T11:49:33","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T17:49:33","slug":"star-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Casino Sydney Faces Fresh Licensing Probe Amid Reform Doubts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sydney\u2019s Star Casino will face a second investigation into its business practices. That’s after the New South Wales gambling regulator expressed doubts about the success of its efforts to reform.<\/p>\n

\"Star
Sydney\u2019s Star Casino\u2019s gaming license is on the line after the New South Wales Independent Casino Commission demanded a fresh investigation into its operations Monday. (Image: 9 News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Operator Star Entertainment was found unsuitable to hold a Sydney casino license in 2022 after a public inquiry found that the company had allowed money laundering, criminal infiltration, and fraud to occur on the premises.<\/p>\n

Star avoided license revocation and was instead given until January 2024<\/a> to clean up its act. This resulted in the casino replacing its board and most of its executive team. But on Monday, the NSW Independent Casino Commission (ICC) called for a fresh inquiry over concerns that the casino has not done enough to address its failings.<\/p>\n

Star \u2018Blindsided\u2019 <\/strong><\/h2>\n

The announcement is believed to have completely \u201cblindsided\u201d Star executives just one day before they were due to deliver half-yearly results, according to The Australian Financial Review<\/em> (AFR<\/em>). Star Entertainment on Monday requested a temporary trading halt for its ordinary shares on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).<\/p>\n

I\u2019m just not sure the extent to which they\u2019ve addressed the cultural reform that [the first inquiry] said \u2026 was serious and endemic and needed a lot of work,\u201d<\/strong> ICC chief Philip Crawford told AFR. <\/em>\u201cWe want to see the progress they\u2019ve made around that particular space. That\u2019s really important.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Star\u2019s operations were described as \u201ca case study of unethical conduct and cultural failure\u201d in the initial inquiry by litigator Adam Bell SC, who has been asked to conduct the new investigation.<\/p>\n

Secret VIP Room<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The inquiry found that Star Casino management allowed 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

Meanwhile, the casino enabled now-defunct Macau junket operator Suncity to secretly operate an unbranded VIP room<\/a>, known as \u201cSalon 95.\u201d At the time, Suncity had been identified by Australian authorities as having links to organized crime.<\/p>\n

\n

Salon 95 continued to operate after then-Star CEO Matt Bekier told regulators his company had severed business links with the junket.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The new inquiry will run for about 15 weeks, with the final report due May 31, ABC reports.<\/p>\n

Separately, Australia\u2019s financial crime agency, AUSTRAC, is suing Star Entertainment. It alleges the company allowed more than 100 high-risk VIP customers to launder billions through its casinos for years.<\/p>\n

Star has been accused of wooing suspected criminals, foreign agents, and fraudsters to gamble at its casinos from at least 2014 to 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sydney\u2019s Star Casino will face a second investigation into its business practices. That’s after the New South Wales gambling regulator expressed doubts about the success of its efforts to reform. Operator Star Entertainment was found unsuitable to hold a Sydney casino license in 2022 after a public inquiry found that the company had allowed money […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":311197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69069,62,21,18,13592],"tags":[89924,89923,84819,89922,89921,82763],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nStar Casino Sydney Faces Fresh Probe Amid Reform Doubts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Star Casino Sydney and Star Entertainment may not be doing enough to address its failings, sparking fresh licensing inquiry.\" \/>\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-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Star Casino Sydney Faces Fresh Probe Amid Reform Doubts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Star Casino Sydney and Star Entertainment may not be doing enough to address its failings, sparking fresh licensing inquiry.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/\" \/>\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=\"2024-02-19T14:41:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-19T17:49:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Star.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"750\" \/>\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=\"3 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-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/\",\"name\":\"Star Casino Sydney Faces Fresh Probe Amid Reform Doubts\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Star.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-19T14:41:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-19T17:49:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Star Casino Sydney and Star Entertainment may not be doing enough to address its failings, sparking fresh licensing inquiry.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Star.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Star.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":750,\"caption\":\"Sydney\u2019s Star Casino\u2019s gaming license is on the line after the New South Wales Independent Casino Commission demanded a fresh investigation into its operations Monday. (Image: 9 News)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Asia Pacific Gaming\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asia-pacific-gaming\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Star Casino Sydney Faces Fresh Licensing Probe Amid Reform Doubts\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. 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. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Star Casino Sydney Faces Fresh Probe Amid Reform Doubts","description":"Star Casino Sydney and Star Entertainment may not be doing enough to address its failings, sparking fresh licensing inquiry.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Star Casino Sydney Faces Fresh Probe Amid Reform Doubts","og_description":"Star Casino Sydney and Star Entertainment may not be doing enough to address its failings, sparking fresh licensing inquiry.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2024-02-19T14:41:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-02-19T17:49:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":750,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Star.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/","name":"Star Casino Sydney Faces Fresh Probe Amid Reform Doubts","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Star.jpg","datePublished":"2024-02-19T14:41:10+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-19T17:49:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Star Casino Sydney and Star Entertainment may not be doing enough to address its failings, sparking fresh licensing inquiry.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Star.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Star.jpg","width":1000,"height":750,"caption":"Sydney\u2019s Star Casino\u2019s gaming license is on the line after the New South Wales Independent Casino Commission demanded a fresh investigation into its operations Monday. (Image: 9 News)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-casino-sydney-faces-fresh-probe-amid-reform-doubts\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Asia Pacific Gaming","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asia-pacific-gaming\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Star Casino Sydney Faces Fresh Licensing Probe Amid Reform Doubts"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. 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. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311196"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311196"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":311228,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311196\/revisions\/311228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}