{"id":777027659,"date":"2025-06-11T06:19:45","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T09:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777027659"},"modified":"2026-04-21T22:00:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T01:00:27","slug":"the-star-warns-us260-88m-austrac-fine-could-force-it-into-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/the-star-warns-us260-88m-austrac-fine-could-force-it-into-administration","title":{"rendered":"The Star warns AUSTRAC fine could force it into administration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It wants to pay a quarter of the amount that the watchdog is seeking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Australia.- <strong>The Star Entertainment Group<\/strong> has reportedly claimed that a fine of over AU$100m ($65.22m) from the <strong>Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre<\/strong> (AUSTRAC) would lead the casino operator to bankruptcy. The financial watchdog is seeking an AU$400m (US$260.88m) fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the Canberra Times, The Star&#8217;s lawyer, <strong>Steven Finch SC<\/strong>, said during a hearing that an AU$100m fine would be reasonable\u00a0as &#8220;That amount &#8230; is all the money that we have and reasonably anticipate being able to borrow, hoping but not certain that we will be able to survive that.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finch argued that a fine smaller than that amount would still have a deterant effect on other businesses. He told justice <strong>Cameron Moore<\/strong>: &#8220;If you engage in this sort of conduct &#8230; you are open to being fined every dollar that you&#8217;ve got and every dollar you can borrow.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/the-star-considering-unsolicited-funding-proposal-from-ballys-corporation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bally\u2019s Corporation<\/a> and Investment Holdings Pty are expected to invest AU$300m (US$176m) into The Star in exchange for a majority share of the company. AUSTRAC highlighted this is its closing submissions to the Federal Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/federal-court-approves-us293-4m-settlement-between-crown-and-austrac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Crown Resorts<\/a> recently agreed to pay an AU$450m fine for money-laundering breaches, and AUSTRAC&#8217;s barrister, <strong>Simon White SC<\/strong>, said this could be a benchmark for what The Star might pay. He said The Star&#8217;s conduct was worse than Crown&#8217;s and that The Star&#8217;s management had continued working with high-risk gamblers even after the public inquiry into the latter. He reported that about AU$138bn was made through junkets and AU$20bn from high-risk customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/star-entertainment-group-revenue-continues-to-fall-in-q3\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">third quarter of the financial year 2025<\/a>, The Star reported net revenue of AU$271m (US$173.8m). That\u2019s a decrease of 9 per cent&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/the-star-entertainment-group-posts-net-revenue-of-us271-5m-for-q3\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sequentially<\/a> and 35.35 per cent in year-on-year terms. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were negative AU$21m (US$13.4m) compared to negative AU$8m (US$5.1m) in the previous quarter. The company said the results reflect \u201ca seasonal softening in revenues, reduced levels of gaming visitation and the one-off impact of adverse weather events driving property closures in Queensland in March.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"see-also-container\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label\">See also:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-article\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"related-article__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/04\/iStock-1125111981-1024x703-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"related-article__text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label-strong\">See also:<\/span> <a href='https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/greyhound-racing-new-zealand-challenges-ban-on-the-sport'>Greyhound Racing New Zealand challenges ban on the sport<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It wants to pay a quarter of the amount that the watchdog is seeking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26456,"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 Star Entertainment Group claims a AU$400m fine from AUSTRAC for money laundering breaches would lead to bankruptcy, proposing an AU$100m settlement. This financial distress is compounded by declining Q3 FY25 net revenue and negative EBITDA, amidst a proposed AU$300m investment from Bally's Corporation for a majority stake. AUSTRAC cites Crown Resorts' AU$450m fine as a benchmark, arguing Star's conduct was more severe.","focusai_entities":"The Star Entertainment Group, AUSTRAC, Steven Finch SC, Cameron Moore, Bally's Corporation, Investment Holdings Pty, Crown Resorts, Simon White SC","focusai_location":"Australia, Queensland","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Star's Solvency Impact","query":"What specific governance and operational changes would The Star Entertainment Group need to implement to satisfy AUSTRAC and ensure long-term solvency, even with a reduced fine?"},{"label":"Regulatory Precedent","query":"How might AUSTRAC's pursuit of a higher fine against The Star, compared to Crown Resorts, recalibrate the regulatory risk assessment for other licensed operators in Australia regarding AML compliance?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,154],"tags":[29,24619,225],"class_list":["post-777027659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legislation-news","tag-casino","tag-finance","tag-legislation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777027659","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=777027659"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777027659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777027667,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777027659\/revisions\/777027667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777027659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777027659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777027659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}