The Star interim chairman Ben Heap fights for NSW casino licence: ‘We’ve been arrogant’
Ben Heap concedes the troubled casino group has been closed off to criticism and has vowed that won’t be the case in the future as the company fights for its NSW casino licence.
Star Entertainment interim chairman Ben Heap concedes the gaming company has been “arrogant” and “closed off to criticism” as he fights to regain its fitness to hold a NSW casino licence.
In his first comments following the release of Adam Bell SC’s damning review into Star, Mr Heap said the group needed to earn back the trust of the gaming regulator and “we will do everything in our power to make the necessary improvements”.
The Star – which has 14 days to show the NSW gaming regulator that it can be suitable to hold a casino licence – attracted the ire of Independent Casino Commission head Philip Crawford, who said he was not getting the “vibe” that Star understood its “problems” and was showing the necessary leadership to fix them.
“I’m afraid the cultural, institutional arrogance hasn’t changed much; there is still an unwillingness to show the right level of transparency,” Mr Crawford said.
The Bell review found that the gaming giant – with a string of casinos and a market value of more than $2.6bn – had set up an “inherently deceptive and unethical process” disguising more than $900m as hotel expenses to allow wealthy Chinese gamblers to bet at the venues, failed to check the source of the money, continued to deal with patrons with known links to triad criminal gangs – and knew for years it was in breach of the rules.
Mr Heap, who has been a Star director since 2017 and replaced John O’Neill as chairman in June, acknowledged that the company needed to accelerate its remediation.
“It is clear from the report that we need to fundamentally transform our culture. I accept that there have been times we’ve been arrogant and closed off to criticism,” Mr Heap said.
“That will not be the case in the future.”
Mr Heap is the only Star director who intends to stay at the company, with all his board colleagues flagging their departures during the Bell review hearings earlier this year.
He said in the coming days, Star would respond to the NSW Independent Casino Commission’s show cause notice and plead its case on “why we should be able to continue to operate”.
“Our goal is to earn back your trust and the trust and confidence of the NSW Independent Casino Commission, and indeed all our regulators. I recognise that we won’t by judged by our words, but by our actions.”
Instead of shutting down junkets bringing in major overseas gamblers, as Star should have, the Bell report found it allowed them to continue to operate, “a collective decision by the senior management … which reflected a culture in which business goals were given undue priority over regulatory and money laundering and terrorism financing risks”.
The review also heard that Star misled NAB and ultimately the Bank of China over its practice of disguising gambling transactions on UnionPay debit cards as hotel charges. The company also moved a Chinese junket – which had links to triad criminal gangs – to a secret gaming room at its Pyrmont casino after it was found on CCTV illegally exchanging bundles of cash from backpacks for gambling chips.
Meanwhile, a separate inquiry in Queensland heard that the company allowed a patron who had been banned by NSW police to continue to gamble at its casinos in the sunshine state.
But investors expect the company – which opened its Pyrmont casino in 1995 and now employs 4000 staff, about half its entire workforce, – to keep its operating licence, using rival Crown Resorts – the company formerly backed by James Packer – as a precedent.
Crown was found to have facilitated money laundering and other organised crime in three inquiries in three states. While it has been found unfit to hold casino licences in those jurisdictions, regulators and review heads have outlined a path for the company to maintain its suitability.
The Bell review wasn’t tasked to create a remediation plan for Star, but it included 30 recommendations on how it should be reformed.
“We will not only fix the issues raised in the report but will examine and address their root causes,” Mr Heap said.
“Examples of actions we’ve taken to date include introducing stronger controls, enhancing our regulatory compliance functions and training, adding new members to our board, rebuilding our senior leadership team, separating our risk and legal functions, hiring a new chief risk officer, and voluntarily appointing an independent monitor to oversee our progress.
“We acknowledge there is much more to be done and we will do it working constructively and transparently with the NSW Independent Casino Commission, our other regulators, and our independent monitor.”
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