Star Entertainment slapped with $140k fine
By Cloe Read
Star Entertainment has been fined $140,000 after the casino company pleaded guilty to several offences, including helping gamblers to buy chips using a credit card.
The company pleaded guilty to the offences, which occurred at both its Brisbane and Gold Coast casinos in 2017, 2018 and 2022, and which it self-reported to the regulator.
Some of the offences occurred in Star’s Gold Coast casino, located in Broadbeach.
The Brisbane Magistrates Court on Wednesday heard there was no audit process in place for regulators to discover this type of offence, but Star’s punishment was mitigated because the company came forward about the offences.
Prosecutor Amanda Bain said seven of the charges related to patrons being able to gain gambling chips on credit.
She said that in 2017, one patron was able to obtain $20,000, and there were multiple other transactions for several thousand dollars, using a credit card.
“They are not insignificant amounts of money patrons were able to get on credit,” she told the court.
The remaining four charges related to Star sending promotional material to excluded people – generally people who are problem gamblers.
Bain said a penalty of between $120,000 and $150,000 would be appropriate for the company. The maximum penalty was $1 million, the court heard.
Polina Kinchina, representing Star, said the company had taken steps to mitigate future problems, including updating the standard operating procedure and ensuring training for staff.
She said the offences were human errors, and it was not the attitude of the company to allow credit card transactions to go through. She said staff were trained to not accept credit card transactions.
In sentencing Star, Magistrate Shane Elliott said there were elements of human error in all 11 charges.
“It’s not a situation where there [are] systemic problems with the casino or flagrant breaches of the act,” he said.
Elliott weighed that against what he said was the casino’s responsibility to the community to not encourage gamblers to visit a casino.
He accepted the breaches may not have been noticed if the casino did not self-report.
Star was also ordered to pay $3250 in costs and no conviction was recorded.
In 2021, an investigation by this masthead found Star had enabled extensive alleged criminal activity, including suspected money laundering, organised crime, large-scale fraud and foreign interference in Australian casinos, later sparking two independent inquiries into the Star group.
Star was fined $100 million in NSW in October 2022. It was also fined $100 million in Queensland in December last year, and given a payment plan.