Star boss Geoff Hogg admits red flags ‘ignored’

The company failed for years to ban suspicious high-rollers from its Queensland casinos, Geoff Hogg has admitted.

Geoff Hogg denied high-wealth patrons were not banned as quickly as they should have been because Star executives were focused on profit. Picture: Liam Kidston

Star boss Geoff Hogg has admitted the company failed for years to ban suspicious high-rollers from its Queensland casinos, ­despite one having alleged links to the Sicilian mafia and another bringing $198,950 in wet cash in a cooler bag to the Gold Coast to bet.

It is a significant concession from Mr Hogg, Star’s last man standing after a bruising NSW inquiry into the company’s Sydney casino claimed the scalps of most of his former senior management colleagues and the majority of its board.

Now the embattled casino giant’s interim chief executive, Mr Hogg’s stint in the witness box on Thursday, as part of Queensland’s probe into Star’s Brisbane and Gold Coast casinos, was a high-stakes play.

If the inquiry goes badly for Star, retired Court of Appeal judge Bob Gotterson could recommend to the Queensland government that the company is not fit to hold its casino licences without drastic intervention.

And if the inquiry makes adverse findings about Mr Hogg or his evidence, his future at the publicly listed company could be at risk. Counsel assisting the inquiry, barrister Jonathan Horton QC, grilled Mr Hogg about five ­gamblers who he alleged should have been banned from playing at Star’s Queensland casinos years before they were, ­describing “red-hot alerts” that ought to have come to Mr Hogg’s attention.

Mr Hogg deflected some responsibility, saying he wasn’t kept as informed as he should have been as head of the Queensland casinos, and placing the blame on Star’s chief legal and risk officer, Paula Martin.

Jonathan Horton. Picture: Liam Kidston

Ms Martin has quit in the wake of damning revelations at the NSW inquiry.

Mr Hogg denied the high-wealth patrons were not banned as quickly as they should have been because Star executives were focused on profit, instead of mitigating the risk of organised crime and money laundering.

“I’m not sure that is the case; I do accept our policies and procedures weren’t strong enough and those people should have been excluded,” he said.

Person One had been banned from Star’s Sydney casino on the orders of the NSW police commissioner in about 2007. He has been suspected of money laundering.

But he was not excluded from the company’s Queensland sites until December 10 last year.

By that time, he had gambled $10m to $15m with Star in Queensland, and been showered with gifts, including a $52,000 gold Rolex watch, concert tickets, private jet flights and limousine rides, to keep him coming back.

Star gifted him the Rolex in 2019, despite Person One turning up to Star’s Gold Coast casino on May 2, 2018 with $198,950 cash in $50 notes in a blue cooler bag. The notes were “in poor condition and appear to have been wet and some stuck together”, according to evidence tendered to the inquiry.

The incident was flagged in Star’s Protecht internal record-keeping system as an “unusual activity referral” for Person One, and was forwarded to police.

Still, he was allowed to gamble.

As recently as March last year, Person One visited the Star Gold Coast with $149,000 in cash in a Chemist Warehouse plastic bag.

According to documents tendered to the inquiry, the cash was in bundles encircled by “straps” of “high-quality, thick, waxy-feel paper,” described as “very unusual” by a Star cashier.

But still Person One was encouraged to gamble for an extra nine months after the plastic bag incident.

The inquiry was told Person One was one of Star Gold Coast’s top three gamblers.

Mr Hogg was pressed by Mr Horton on whether Person One was allowed to continue to gamble – despite the succession of red flags and suspicious incidents – because he made a serious contribution to Star’s bottom line.

Mr Hogg retorted: “No one customer is significant to the financial performance of the company.

“That’s the reality of where we are. (He was) an important customer, he made an important contribution.”

Mr Horton: “He was significant enough (for Star) to very diligently attend to his needs and what he might want in order that he regularly return to (its) Queensland casinos?”

Mr Hogg: “Yes.”

Mr Horton: “Significant enough to give him a very expensive watch?”

Mr Hogg: “Yes.”

The Star boss said he had been given legal advice – which he now knew was incorrect – that the Queensland operations could not ban someone merely on the back of a police commissioner’s order in another state.

Mr Hogg said the policy had since been overhauled, and bans were applied at the Sydney and Queensland sites simultaneously.

The inquiry heard Person Two had suspected links to the ‘Ndrangheta Sicilian mafia, and had been banned by police commissioners from casinos in NSW and Victoria, when he was in the top 10 table players at Star’s Gold Coast casino.

Person Two was banned in Victoria and NSW in 2014 and 2015, but not excluded from Queensland until January 6, 2021.

Before Mr Hogg was appointed on June 1 to the position of interim chief executive of Star, he had been the chief casino officer for Queensland.

He told the inquiry he was not frequently kept abreast of the casinos’ anti-money-laundering work, or activity involving specific high-rollers.

Mr Hogg said much of his time, particularly in 2015, had been spent dealing with Star’s bid for the $3.6bn Queen’s Wharf riverfront casino project in Brisbane’s CBD.

The Weekend Australian revealed on Saturday that red flags had been raised by Queensland’s gaming regulator during the probity process for Queen’s Wharf in 2014 and 2015, about Star’s Hong Kong partner Chow Tai Fook’s links with Macau godfather of gambling, Stanley Ho, and his alleged triad connections.

Outside court, Mr Hogg declined to answer questions about Chow Tai Fook, or his future at the company.

“I won’t be commenting today,” he said.