Opinion
Reaching for the Star: Second inquiry on casino group fails to shock
Elizabeth Knight
Business columnistCould it be that the casino regulator in NSW was a little trigger-happy when it ordered yet another inquiry into the Star last year to determine its suitability to hold a licence?
It was an expensive, time-consuming and disruptive exercise to hold public hearings when just about everyone, including the company, already knew the outcome: that Star was not yet fit to hold a casino licence in NSW.
Has the casino regulator overreacted when it ordered a second inquiry into Star?Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
We will know the official outcome soon. Adam Bell, who conducted the inquiry, has just handed his report to the NSW casino regulator.
To be sure, Star still has its problems, and its path to redemption has a long way to go. But if media reports are accurate, then Caspar Conde, the lead lawyer assisting the state inquiry into the company, hasn’t argued that anything particularly dire has been going on inside the casino group over the past couple of years.
Instead, it seems, not enough has yet been done to improve the culture.
This begs the question of why the NSW watchdog, the Independent Casino Commission, felt the need to take the nuclear option on Star of holding a second inquiry.
Maybe we have become desensitised to misconduct, or perhaps the regulator overreacted.
The first Star inquiry produced jaw-dropping revelations around money laundering, links to organised crime and claims that the casino group misled the regulator. On top of all this, there were a number of extremely serious governance, risk management and cultural failures.
Thus, the misconduct bar was set very high.
The narrative during the latest Star inquiry was different. It portrayed a casino group under financial siege that was trying (often unsuccessfully) to undertake the costly process to reform itself. It was a company bogged down by a Herculean-sized clean-up.
Former Star chief executive Robbie Cooke.Credit: Oscar Colman
Falling behind schedule with this overhaul only placed it under more pressure from the regulator.
Its ultimate mistake was the poor judgement call to pick a fight with the casino watchdog.
During the inquiry, the public got to hear how Star Entertainment’s then-chairman David Foster and former chief executive Robbie Cooke privately schemed to wage war on the regulator and considered engaging shareholders in a class action against a NSW government-appointed manager put in place to oversee the casino’s reformation.
It was a bad look for Star and its directors, who seemed to drink enough Kool-Aid that they didn’t move sufficiently quickly to remove Cooke once he had lost the confidence of the regulator.
The regulator appears to have taken the massive swing of holding a second inquiry because it was unable to control the casino’s management and board.
There was no evidence that Star’s management under Cooke was engaged in the sort of conduct that was unearthed in the first Star inquiry, or revealed by the royal commission into its bigger rival Crown.
After the first inquiry, ASIC initiated legal proceedings against the Star board overseeing the company between 2017 and 2019, alleging directors failed to pay enough attention to the risk of money laundering and criminal associations.
Cooke was clearly behind schedule in cleaning up Star, and as issues began piling up he appeared to spend too much time putting out fires and not enough time making progress on substantive reform.
Even with a touch of Steve McCann magic, Star’s rehabilitation could take years.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
The largest of these fires was financial. The company was running low on the capital needed for the clean-up, which in part made finding senior executives to fill vital roles all the more difficult. This is despite raising billions of dollars from shareholders and selling assets. At one stage, the company even contemplated selling its Sydney casino.
The second inquiry also outlined a less-than-perfect culture. But a forensic look under the hood of just about any company would unearth cultural shortcomings and governance mistakes.
The regulator confirmed on Wednesday that it has received Adam Bell’s final report from the second inquiry, triggering a 2.5 per cent fall in Star’s share price. Investors are understandably nervous that Star could permanently lose its NSW licence.
But the smart money is betting instead that Star will keep what is effectively a provisional licence until the clean-up is complete.
It has already hired Steve McCann, who was instrumental in Crown transitioning to suitability, to replace Cooke.
But even with a touch of McCann magic, Star’s rehabilitation could take years.
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