Australia’s Star Entertainment Group has pleaded guilty to seven charges of breaching Queensland’s Casino Control Act by allowing players to purchase gaming chips with a credit card, the government announced Monday.
The charges, which comes after Star was found unsuitable to hold its Queensland casino licenses but given a two-year window to prove otherwise, relate to offences that took place between 2 June 2017 and 29 December 2018, and between 23 March 2022 and 2 April 2022.
Sentencing is set down for 2 June 2023, according to Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman.
“The Queensland Government is committed to ensuring Queensland casinos are operated lawfully, ethically and in a way that maintains the highest standards of integrity and public confidence,” Fentiman said.
Star has already been hit with an AU$100 million (US$67 million) fine by the Queensland state government for failures uncovered in its recent review – the second fine of that magnitude after the NSW government earlier issued an AU$100 million fine of its own.
Star operates two casinos in Queensland – The Star Gold Coast and Treasury Brisbane – and plans to open its AU$3.6 billion (US$2.4 billion) Queen’s Wharf Brisbane development by the end of the year.
