The Star ASX: SGR suspended over accounts failure with administration on the cards

Whether you’re seeking gaming excitement, exceptional dining, or a base for exploring Sydney, The Star Sydney offers something for everyone. Situated on Sydney’s lively Pyrmont Peninsula, The Star Sydney is a landmark of entertainment, luxury, and culture. Opened in 1997, The Star has grown into one of Australia’s premier integrated resorts, featuring a world-class casino, acclaimed restaurants, luxury hotels, and a variety of entertainment options. Its central location at 80 Pyrmont Street, with easy access via light rail, buses, and ferries, ensures convenience for both locals and tourists (The Star Sydney Official Guide). When you feel like you need a break and some luxurious shut eye there’s nowhere better than The Star. It’s home to four unique hotels and residences, including Sydney’s first and only Forbes five-star boutique hotel and urban resort - The Darling. The Star stands out for its fusion of entertainment, luxury, gaming diversity, and prime Sydney location.
However, Star is permitted to continue operating slot machines, or pokies as they’re called Down Under, and live dealer table games at The Star Sydney. It did not pivot its business then, or in 2020 when the Bergin inquiry into Crown Resorts that resulted from those media reports uncovered breaches of anti-money laundering requirements so flagrant that Crown was deemed unfit to operate a Sydney casino. It will now be up to Bally’s to return Star to profitability in a regulatory environment where it continues to be the only poker machine operator in Sydney that is not allowed to accept cash. Less than 400 metres down the road from the Sydney Crypto casino top cryptocurrency, Pyrmont Bridge Hotel has 19 poker machines where customers can play anonymously. It jumped 100 places up the state rankings by gaming machine net profit in the quarter after the changes at Star took effect. The new cashless gambling regime required the online casino account Finland to conduct extensive "know your customer" checks on its patrons, and revenue dropped immediately and sharply after it was introduced. Among Star’s many injuries, the NSW government order for its Sydney RocketPlay crypto casino regulation to stop accepting cash from October last year threatened to be the fatal blow.
Like its counterpart, Victorian-based Crown Resorts, the Bell inquiry found Star had allowed organised crime bosses, including triad gangs from Macau, to run gambling operations out of its premises. The first Bell inquiry found the company unfit to hold a casino licence, suspended it indefinitely and allowed it to operate only after a government representative was appointed to oversee Star's overhauled management. Ironically, the cause for much of the financial pain is Star's newly constructed Brisbane allslots casino poker welcome bonus in the $3.8 billion Queen's Wharf precinct, which opened with great hoopla just on Thursday. For the second time in two years, an independent inquiry by high profile barrister Adam Bell SC has found the casino unfit to hold a licence. Its GW Casino top-rated casino assets require massive write-downs in their value, while tighter gaming regulations and a slowing economy have hit its revenues.
Apart from the higher regulatory costs following a run of scandals, Star’s fortunes have also been hurt by poor gaming turnover at its casinos and the move to cashless gaming in NSW, with Queensland to follow. A second inquiry last year uncovered several additional license breaches, including falsifying records. The Richard Casino sports betting odds has been overseen by a government-appointed manager since the 2022 report. More than 8000 jobs are on the line, with the company running out of time and money to keep its casinos open. Star Entertainment was suspended from trading by the ASX this morning over its failure to lodge financial statements for the December half-year and may not trade again if its lenders fail to agree to a deal that gives the casino operator fresh funding. Star’s chief executive, Steve McCann, said this week that while poker machine revenue was continuing to rise across NSW and Queensland, the casino operator was not benefiting from it because of tighter regulations.
Even for those who identify as LGBTQI+, we can still be allies for others within the community. Alarming laws and legislation have been passed in other countries that can significantly impact people’s lives. As a business, The Star is ahead of many in our industry in terms of diversity and inclusion, but there’s still a lot to do. The Trans and gender-diverse communities are starting to feel vulnerable, so let’s continue to work on making The Star a safe and inclusive place for everyone, esp., for trans and gender-diverse team members.