Star Fined Again in Australia
The Star Entertainment Group has been fined again in Australia. This time, Star was fined $140,000 (NZ$ 151,000) for accepting credit card payments. In Australia, it is illegal for casinos to let players buy chips with credit cards.
Between March 23, 2022 and April 2, 2022, players were able to make the purchases at land based venues of Star Entertainment; a year after the events, the company pleaded guilty. It is not the first time that Star has broken the Australian gambling laws.
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Guilt of 11 Violations
This week it was announced by the Brisbane Magistrates Court that Star Entertainment was fined for the violation. In total, the operator was found guilty of 11 violations. This resulted in the controversial gambling company being fined AU$140,000. In 2017 and 2018 and 2022, the casino broke the same rule with the difference now being that the money spent on the chips was considerably higher in the last offence. During the lawsuit earlier this week it was alleged that one of the players purchased $20,000 in chips via a credit card, The Guardian reports. Justine Russell, Treasury Brisbane Casino interim COO, was in court but decided not to speak to local media.
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Star Reports Own Misconduct
Star’s most recent violations are not limited to accepting credit card payments. At the beginning of 2022, the company also targeted players who had self-excluded themselves from gambling via advertisements. At least two of them were reported as problem gamblers. Star discovered the mistake and launched an internal investigation. In this investigation, the gambling operator found out that credit card payments were accepted at two of their land based casinos. After completing the formal investigation, Star Entertainment reported the abuses to local authorities. The maximum fine Star could have faced for accepting credit card payments and turning advertising towards reported problem players is set at more than $1 million. The fine the company got from the Australian regulator turned out to be a lot lower, partly because Star had self-reported the violations:
“I accept that there is a possibility that the violations would not have been discovered without the internal report. This is not a situation where there are systemic problems with this gambling operator or continuous breaches of the local gambling act (Queensland’s Casino Control Act).”
Shane Elliott, Brisbane Magistrates Court
Another extenuating circumstance was that the violations arose due to human errors made by employees. There were no deliberate violations with the Australian gambling company itself having already taken action, resulting in not choosing for the maximum penalty.
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Not The First Fine For Star
Star has been under fire in Australia for some time. A year ago, local authorities launched an investigation into the Star Entertainment Group with the operator being suspected of having links with criminal organisations based in Macau. Star was being held accountable for money laundering and fraud, among other things. Those suspicions were amplified when it emerged that a Chinese billionaire turned out to be easily able to deposit AU$1.7 billion into Star over an eight-year period without any investigation into the origin of the money. In October, Star was eventually fined a record AU$100 million (NZ$ 107m).
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