Star casinos in Queensland allowed a suspicious gambler to carry on

The third day of hearings concluded on Thursday with revelations into Star Entertainment Group’s former practices in relation to high roller customers piling on. Subject to public scrutiny at the request of the people overseeing the probe, yesterday’s hearing highlighted a new issue with the Queensland casinos. The probe is looking into the Group’s Star Gold Coast and Treasury Brisbane properties and the use of China UnionPay bank card facilities.

Day three of the hearing found out that one of the "top 10 table players" at the Gold Coast casino in the state had been previously banned by police to enter casinos in two other states. The person had been excluded from casinos in both Victoria and New South Wales, with the order coming directly from police commissionaires in the states.

The reason – said person had alleged criminal ties to Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, a notorious criminal organization. However, this had no bearing on Star Entertainment’s decision to allow the man to continue visiting the Star Gold Coast. A final decision to exclude the suspicious patron came only in January 2021.

The hearing inquired Howard Steiner, Star’s General Manager for AML and CTF Compliance, and sought his input in the matter. Steiner, who only started working at the company in 2020, said that the previous license withdrawals for Victoria and New South Wales in 2014 and 2015 should have prompted a group-wide withdrawal of the person’s license.

Jonathan Horton, QC, the counsel assisting with the probe, explained that while public materials about the man’s arrest also existed – mostly in the press – some of those materials were not available as they required a subscription to investigate. However, Horton questioned Steiner whether the fact that the articles existed should not have triggered a more extensive check, despite the fact they were available to subscribers only.

Steiner acquiesced that such a course of action could have been feasible. Steiner did not try to conceal any of Star Entertainment Group’s past failures across its properties but rather assured that such practices belonged to the past.

The man did agree that Star Entertainment could have probably done better when it comes to enacting checks into individuals who were classified as high rollers and raised suspicion or had suspected criminal links.

Star Entertainment Acting Chief Executive Officer Geoff Hogg was also part of the hearing. He assured Horton that the company was able to make much better decisions regarding its high rollers and probe red flags in customer behavior. Hogg too acquiesced that the company’s former policies were not strong enough, but he said that this had changed.

So far, there is nothing to suggest that Horton and the general probe into Star Entertainment in Queensland have in mind to assail the Group’s licenses for the properties as was the case with similar investigations into Crown Resorts.