Star Entertainment Overhauls Management Board Amid Investigation
Two board members at Star Entertainment casino have been forced to step down following a public investigation into the regulatory missteps taken by the casino. The company had to announce this week that two long-serving members of its board would be stepping down, as part of an inward-looking assessment of its management strategy. This overhaul is in response to an investigation being launched into a cascade of regulatory breaches at its brick and mortar casino locations across Australia.
Following a cascade of scandals at Star Entertainment over the previous year, two of the key board members overseeing the company’s culture and processes have tendered resignations, stepping away from the embattled Australian casino. ©DJEDJ/Pixabay
Australia’s largest casino company has announced a major shake-up of its leadership team this week, taking the pragmatic decision to cut two members from its board. The board members who are facing the cut are deemed to be at least partly responsible for the major breaches of regulatory guidance. Those stepping down will have to take some of the blame being railed against Star Entertainment on the chin, these are in fact very serious accusations being levied, and it will take a great deal of work to restore the trust that was once placed in Star by everyday consumers of gambling products in Australia.
Even despite the long rap sheet of accusations being made against Star Entertainment, there is still the question of how exactly the firm was able to make such flagrant breaches of the casino regulatory code without facing any retribution for a long while. The breaches are in themselves shocking and hard to come to terms with. These include systemic money-laundering, allowing underage persons to enter the premises and gamble on slot machines, and infringement of staff rights in a series of scandals that were documented widely last year.
The findings whilst shocking are by no means exclusive to this casino brand, proving the endemic nature of the problems facing the Australian gambling sector. Many institutions have come and gone, and many are trying to maintain the advantage they have over the competition in this industry. But what has been proven to be a serious misstep is refreshing and reassuring for the healing prospects of the industry. The fact that regulators, journalists and the legal profession are taking this seriously is further reassurance that this problem will be fixed in the near future.
Company Under Regulatory Scrutiny for AML Lapses
The company has found itself in extremely hot water following major lapses in AML and counter-terrorism obligations. Breaches in these two categories are always taken incredibly seriously as it has direct links to the most severe types of crime in the country. Organised crime groups thrive of these loopholes, and money-laundering remains an essential component in the crime revenue model. Without a means to clean the cash gained from illicit operations, there would be no way for criminals to fund and profit from their activities.
With that all being said, there are still some significant measures that other groups have yet to be taken, following a public hearing into the operational effectiveness of The Star Sydney to uphold its obligations to the public when it comes to preventing the aforementioned criminal acts, there has been heightened regulatory scrutiny. It comes down to the trust that we place in these public entities. As a publicly traded company, the Star certainly holds a high-degree of fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders. But when reports such as these surface and begin to damage.
The casinos across the region have all found themselves under increased scrutiny in recent weeks with a major overhaul of the legal treatment of these institutions. When it comes to the granting of new licenses, there doesn’t seem to be a large appetite to make this possible. What has been determined is that the major players currently operating in the space will continue to dilute the power that they possess, double-down on their obligation to deliver a fair and transparent gaming experience to everyone, and avoid having their operating license revoked.
Star Entertainment have clearly learned a tough lesson in fulfilling their obligation to uphold the legal responsibilities of a gambling market maker. There are often grey areas of the law that do not explicitly prohibit people from doing certain things, and yet everyone knows that it is something that would be an ethical breach and shouldn’t be done. It is this sentiment in part that led to the former Chief Executive Officer of Star Entertainment tendering his resignation, in doing so admitting his role and responsibility for the company’s culture, and the people by which enact those policies.
