{"id":30383,"date":"2022-06-02T03:17:32","date_gmt":"2022-06-02T06:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=30383"},"modified":"2026-04-23T08:10:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:10:44","slug":"the-star-committed-repeat-breaches-of-casino-control-act-inquiry-hears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/the-star-committed-repeat-breaches-of-casino-control-act-inquiry-hears","title":{"rendered":"The Star committed repeat breaches of Casino Control Act, inquiry hears"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Counsel Naomi Sharp SC has continued to tell the New South Wales inquiry why The Star Entertainment Group is not suitable to hold a casino licence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- Naomi Sharp SC<\/strong>, the counsel assisting the New South Wales inquiry into The Star Entertainment Group, has continued to close her arguments as to why the company is unsuitable to hold a casino licence for The Star Sydney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She referred to the long series of failures over the years, highlighting multiple violations linked to the use of China Union Pay cards<\/strong>. She said more than 1,300 VIP guests used the cards in almost 2,000 transactions from 2013 to March 2020, despite the practice being prohibited by the card operator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shap also accused the casino operator of not being transparent and of repeatedly violating the Casino Control Law by letting high rollers use Chinese debit cards to get cash to play. The inquiry had heard that\u00a0around AU$900m was processed on the CUP cards<\/a>\u00a0before CUP terminals in Star venues were disabled in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharp has already said that\u00a0Star Entertainment Group is not suitable to hold a casino licence<\/a>\u00a0in Sydney as it\u00a0displayed unethical behaviour<\/strong>\u00a0within its legal team and engaged in dubious practices. She said that Adam Bell SC, who is leading the investigation, should note that Star has maintained a \u201ccontinuing lack of transparency in its dealings with the regulator\u201d, including with Bell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said Star’s use of the CUP process is a good example of employees \u201cappreciating that there was a serious risk and courting that risk\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The counsel assisting the New South Wales inquiry also noted that The Star\u00a0continued to work closely with Suncity despite a 2019 report\u00a0<\/strong>on illegal activities and a 2018 report that raised suspicions about including suspicions about\u00a0Alvin Chau Cheok Wa<\/a>, the founder of Suncity who was arrested on cross-border gambling and money laundering accusations in November 2021.\u00a0Sharp said The Star did not act properly and continued to work with him despite the claims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Counsel Naomi Sharp SC has continued to tell the New South Wales inquiry why The Star Entertainment Group is not suitable to hold a casino licence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":25794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The New South Wales inquiry continues to argue The Star Entertainment Group is unsuitable for a casino license, citing a history of regulatory breaches. Key issues include the illicit processing of AU$900m via China Union Pay cards, a lack of transparency with regulators, and continued association with Suncity despite money laundering suspicions. These findings underscore significant governance and compliance failures within the operator's B2C operations.","focusai_entities":"The Star Entertainment Group, Naomi Sharp SC, The Star Sydney, China Union Pay, Adam Bell SC, Suncity, Alvin Chau Cheok Wa","focusai_location":"New South Wales, Australia, Sydney","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), tech_data (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"License Revocation Impact","query":"What are the projected financial and operational implications for The Star Entertainment Group should the New South Wales inquiry recommend a full or partial revocation of its casino license?"},{"label":"Regulatory Precedent","query":"How might the findings and potential sanctions against The Star Entertainment Group establish new precedents for B2C licensing requirements and regulatory enforcement across other Australian gaming jurisdictions?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156,158],"tags":[24103],"class_list":["post-30383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","category-slider-home","tag-star-entertainment-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30383"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30411,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30383\/revisions\/30411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}