Star’s fight to save Queensland casino licences

The Queensland government has hit Star Entertainment with a demand to show cause why the company should not be stripped of its Gold Coast and Brisbane casino licences.

Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

The Queensland government has hit Star Entertainment with a demand to show cause why the company should not be stripped of its Gold Coast and Brisbane casino licences.

Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman last month said Star was “currently unsuitable” to hold a casino licence in the state, after an inquiry led by a retired judge found major failings at its Brisbane Treasury casino and The Star Gold Coast.

Ms Fentiman said show-cause notices were issued on Thursday night to the licensees of the two casinos, which had until November 25 to respond.

“The notices issued today provide these entities with the opportunity to show cause as to why disciplinary action should not be taken against them,” she said. “While it is important that we do not pre-empt the outcomes of these show-cause notices, new legislation ensures the government has a range of disciplinary options available following that process, including increased fines of up to $100m and the appointment of a special manager.”

Star is expected to notify the ASX of the show-cause notices when the market opens on ­Friday.

The NSW Independent ­Casino Commission appointed Nick Weeks as the special manager of The Star Sydney casino last month, and dealt the company a $100m fine.

It came after the NSW Bell ­inquiry found Star had established an “inherently deceptive and unethical process” of masking more than $900m in Chinese gambling payments as hotel ­expenses.

In Queensland, retired judge Bob Gotterson found the same practice had ­occurred in the state, albeit on a smaller scale.

Mr Gotterson also criticised Star for luring wealthy gamblers to Queensland even after they had been banned interstate over suspected links to money-laundering, finding it was evidence of a “poor corporate culture”.

“This all placed the Star Gold Coast and Treasury Brisbane ­casinos at real jeopardy of infiltration by persons about whom The Star had reason to suspect were likely to have been involved in criminality,” his report said.

In August, The Australian revealed probity officials were concerned about Star’s Hong Kong partner Chow Tai Fook’s links with Stanley Ho and his alleged triad connections, but the joint venture was still awarded the $3.6bn Queen’s Wharf Brisbane casino contract in 2015.