Star Entertainment’s acting CEO Geoff Hogg quits after Bell review’s damning findings

Long-serving Star Entertainment Queensland boss and group acting chief executive Geoff Hogg has resigned – almost two weeks after the NSW regulator criticised his conduct.

Star Entertainment interim chief executive Geoff Hogg is walking out the door after more than a decade at the company. Picture: Liam Kidston

Star Entertainment’s acting chief executive and long-serving boss of its Queensland casinos, Geoff Hogg, has quit the company the day before it is set to respond to a damning report that found it flouted money laundering laws and engaged with patrons with known links to Chinese criminal gangs.

Mr Hogg – who has been at Star for more than a decade – resigned on Monday, almost two weeks after the release of Adam Bell SC’s review into the company, which found it was unfit to hold a NSW casino licence.

“The board has accepted his resignation. Mr Hogg’s final departure date is yet to be determined. In the meantime, he will work with the board to transition his executive responsibilities in an orderly manner,” Star said in an ASX statement.

Mr Hogg’s resignation adds to a raft of high-profile departures from Star, including former chief executive Matt Bekier, chief financial officer Harry Theodore, chief legal and risk officer Paula Martin and chief casino officer Greg Hawkins.

The NSW Independent Casino Commission (NICC) gave Star 14 days to respond to the Bell report, with the casino group set to respond to the commission on Tuesday.

NICC chair Philip Crawford specifically criticised Mr Hogg when he released the Bell review’s findings.

He was scathing that under Mr Hogg’s watch an individual banned by NSW police for gambling in 2007 has since been allowed to gamble in Queensland.

“When pressed it was almost as though the evidence was, unless there is proof beyond reasonable doubt of criminal activity, that they were happy to accommodate that person as a gambler in Queensland,” Crawford said.

Mr Crawford also said earlier this month he was not getting the “vibe” from Star that it understood its “problems” and was showing the necessary leadership to fix them, prompting interim chairman Ben Heap to concede that the company had been “arrogant” and “closed off to criticism”.

Mr Heap – who has been a Star director since 2017 and replaced John O’Neill as chairman in June – will now assume chief executive duties until the group’s incoming CEO Robbie Cooke joins the company.

Star interim chairman Ben Heap will assume chief executive duties. Picture: Joel Carrett

Mr Cooke’s state date is yet to be determined as he seeks to extricate himself from ASX-listed EFTPOS company, Tyro Payments.

In a statement to the ASX, Mr Heap – the only director on Star’s previous board that has signalled a desire to continue at the company – said he had declined to be paid an additional fee for performing chief executive duties.

This is unlike Mr O’Neil, who was paid an additional fee of $1.5m a year, or $125,000 a month, when he assumed the role of executive chairman in April after former chief executive Matt Bekier resigned at the start of Bell review’s public hearings.

This brought Mr O’Neill’s total annual remuneration to more than $2m.

He resigned almost two months later via an ASX announcement that was released after the market closed on a Friday evening.

The Bell review found that Star – 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.

Since the Bell review public hearings began in late March, Star shares have dived 16.7 per cent. This compares with an 11.3 per cent decline across the broader sharemarket.

On Monday they closed at $2.63, down 2.6 per cent on the day.

Mr Heap has 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.

“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.

Originally published as Star Entertainment’s acting CEO Geoff Hogg quits after Bell review’s damning findings