Star's Sydney Casino fined $100m, licence suspended, manager appointed by NICC

The NSW Independent Casino Commission (NICC) has decided to suspend The Star’s licence and impose a fine of $100 million in response to the Bell Report released last month. It has also appointed a manager.

NICC Chief Commissioner Philip Crawford said, “The suspension comes into effect Friday 21 October 9.00am when the manager starts in the role. The NICC has resolved that it is no longer in the public interest that The Star should remain in control of that licence, and that The Star is not currently suitable to be the holder of the licence."

Nicholas Weeks has has been appointed as Manager of the Star by the NICC and he will hold the licence so that the casino can remain operational while its licence is suspended and its 8,000 staff will keep their jobs. He will review the culture of the casino while employed as manager.

Weeks has been a working as an advisor to the NICC since July and prior to that worked for a year with Crown Resorts as Executive General Manager, Transformation and Regulatory Response. He will manage the licence until the NICC determines whether the matters identified during the Bell Review can be rectified.

“The appointment of Mr Weeks will allow casino operations to continue and his primary focus will be to ensure a robust root cause analysis and review of the casino’s culture is undertaken," said Crawford.

Crawford acknowledged that The Star has apologised, acknowledged the serious wrongdoings and that they are will to cooperate with the regulator.

“If it were not for The Star’s change in attitude and our belief that it is in the public interest to protect the thousands of jobs at risk, there might have been a different outcome," he said.

“I’m hopeful incoming CEO Robbie Cooke can apply his experience and leadership skills to guide the company towards suitability under the direction of the manager."

Cooke's employment with The Star commenced on Monday morning. He joins from Tyro Payments, an Australian bank and payments fintech providing merchant credit and EFTPOS services, where he was Managing Director. He was the CEO and Managing Director of Tatts Group from 2013-2019.

The Bell Report identified systemic governance, risk and cultural failures at the Sydney casino, including non-compliance, money disguised by the casino as hotel expenses and vast sums of cash that evaded anti-money laundering protocols in numerous situations.