Customers just taking what they want, no big deal
The Star Entertainment Group, one of Australia’s two major casino operators, is in the spotlight for negative reasons once again. This time, it is revelations of lax concern for customers and the company’s financial well-being that have come to light during a New South Wales (NSW) Independent Casino Commission hearing into The Star’s corporate culture.
Opening evidence featured testimony by Nicholas Weeks, who was appointed the NSW Independent Casino Commission as The Star’s special manager in October 2022 when the company’s casino license was revoked.
One of the problems Weeks brought to light was that The Star seemingly did not care that it lost AUD$3.2 million (USD$2.1 million) because of a faulty ticket cashout machine. For six weeks in the middle of last year, customers were able to reuse tickets in the machine to receive more money, but the company didn’t fix the machine for nearly two months.
“This incident identified deep cultural problems in relation to the level of rigor through which controls are followed and the level of care in which work is conducted…I was also concerned about the control environment because I anticipated that balancing the books and counting money was something I anticipated the casino would be very good at,” Weeks said.
Violating rules and covering it up
Additionally, Weeks expressed concern that Star Sydney staff seemingly did not care about the well-being of their customers. Staff members did not just fail to conduct welfare checks on people who played slot machines for more than three hours, but also falsified documentation that indicated that they had conducted said checks. So they knew they were supposed to do it, but they just couldn’t be bothered.
And it was not an isolated incident – it was so widespread throughout the property that an investigation into The Star’s other casinos was initiated. Weeks said another aspect of the issue that bothered him was that the problem was only raised by Liquor and Gaming inspectors, not casino staff.
Weeks also said that he believes people in the company accessed his e-mails and calendar without his permission. His reason for the suspicion: he saw messages between The Star’s Executive Chair David Foster and former CEO Robbie Cooke that referred to things they only could have known if they saw his communications.
“They are prepping for war, we better do the same”, Foster wrote Cooke on January 31 before a meeting with Liquor and Gaming. The thing is, Weeks said they couldn’t have known of the meeting without snooping in his e-mail and calendar.
“To suggest they wanted to go ‘to war’ with me and the regulator in a circumstance where their licenses are suspended and there’s a decision about that suspension already scheduled to occur in June… is extraordinary.”
Image credit: Flickr.com / Lenny K Photography