Inquiryshortens the odds of Star Entertainment losing its casino licence

Lighting being tested at Star’s Queen’s Wharf operations in Brisbane.

· By GLEN NORRIS

SENIOR BUSINESS REPORTER

· 9:16PM APRIL 19, 2024

· NO COMMENTS

Allegationsof spying, a mysterious whistleblower and fraud, all set against the backdropof highroller gaming rooms and high-stakes gambling.

Therevelations at the first week of the second Bell inquiry into Star’ssuitability to keep its Sydney casino licence had all the makings of a cheappaperback novel. But the stakes are higher for Star and already fragile stateeconomies than throwaway fiction.

Thereis now a real possibility that Star loses both its Sydney and Queenslandlicences, throwing thousands of people out of work, costing investors billionsof dollars and leaving governments in both states with a nasty mess with deepeconomic implications.

RobbieCooke, the ousted chief executive named as the clean-up guy following the firstBell inquiry, has been accused of spectacular failure and a fractiousrelationship not only with the regulator and special manager Nicholas Weeks butwith some members of his senior leadership team, who have left the business anddescribed it as having a “toxic corporate culture”.

Nicholas Weeks at the inquiry.

Amongthe more serious allegations this week was that Mr Cooke, along with Starchairman David Foster, spied on the diary entries of Mr Weeks as they preparedfor “war” with the NSW Independent Casino Commission, withheld reports andcorrespondence from his senior colleagues and went back on mutually agreeddecisions with his leadership team.

Theinquiry also heard that on his watch a $3.32m fraud was committed against Starinvolving malfunctioning cash machines that led to the chief financial officerbeing pressured to cook the books to make the losses more attractive on itsfinancial reports.

Former Star chief executive Robbie Cooke. Picture: David Clark

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MrCooke also allegedly refused to provide copies of correspondence from the NICCthat were critical of Star’s reform efforts to his chief legal officer, whosaid the CEO on several occasions went back on previously agreed decisions andfroze her out of important decisions. A complaint from an anonymouswhistleblower about Mr Cooke is now being investigated by an external law firm.

MrCooke should have been the perfect man for the job when he was appointed to thejob in October 2022. That was the same month that Mr Weeks, also a lawyer, wasnamed as special manager after the first Bell inquiry found a litany of dodgypractices at Star that needed cleaning up. Mr Cooke led Wotif, Tatts Group andTyro before landing at Star.

Whileat Star, Mr Cooke was successful in raising hundreds of millions of dollars incapital to keep Star’s doors open during the tumultuous period, but as theregulator’s noose tightened he appears to have adopted a siege-like attitudetowards the NICC and his own leadership team. One person who has known Mr Cookepersonally for 20 years described him as “affable and goofy” but someone whowears a “a silk glove with an iron fist”.

“Heis too lawyerly,” said the person. “Star needed an entrepreneur to be acrossall their businesses, but that is not Robbie.”

Staris now teetering on the brink, with the odds shortening that it will fail or bebroken up. Assets including Queen’s Wharf and Star Gold Coast will belucrative prizes in any break-up of the company. The finishing touches arebeing made to the $3.5bn Queens Wharf resort in Brisbane ahead of an Augustopening.

Chiefamong those interested in picking over the carcass of Star would be billionairepub baron Bruce Mathieson, who this week lifted his stake in the group to justbelow 10 per cent.

MrMathieson this week declined to comment on his increased investment, but hadpreviously noted Star’s “attractive assets”.

Bell Two Inquiry - Star under siege