The Star not ready for unsupervised casino licence, chair says

The Star Entertainment Group executive chair David Foster has conceded that the company is not yet ready to regain its NSW casino licence following hours of gruelling questions at the inquiry into its culture.

Foster, who was appointed as chair of The Star in March last year, told the inquiry helmed by Adam Bell, SC, that the company has never had a realistic chance of achieving suitability to operate “without some form of supervision”.

The inquiry into The Star’s culture has so far resulted in the departures of multiple executives.

Bell must determine whether The Star is suitable to run its flagship Pyrmont premises when the hearings conclude next week. The inquiry was launched after the NSW Independent Casino Commission (NICC) said it was unsure whether The Star had satisfactorily committed to overhauling its culture since a 2022 inquiry labelled it a “case study of unethical conduct”.

In December, The Star’s flagship casino was given a six-month deadline to regain its licence or face the possibility of closing.

Foster told the inquiry that text messages he sent to recently departed The Star boss Robbie Cooke about “getting rid” of special manager Nick Weeks and a separate plot to launch a class action against him and the state regulator were taken out of context.

The Bell inquiry was last week told Foster and Cooke’s private communications differed greatly from the public tone. In several text messages, Foster likened the coming engagement with the NICC as needing to prepare for war.

“They are prepping for war, we better do the same,” Foster wrote to Cooke in one text. “If done right, could be a catalyst to get rid of Weeks,” he wrote on another occasion.

Foster said he regretted being “trigger-happy” in his messages with Cooke and said they reflected the business’ high-stress environment and did not reflect his actual views on The Star’s relationship with the regulator or Weeks.

“With the benefit of hindsight, they were heat-of-the-moment comments. As I’ve reflected on them, I would have been better served not to respond in the heat of the moment,” he said.

The inquiry has so far heard from a number of senior and former executives who allege that Cooke, who quit last month, was not transparent with the broader executive team about the group’s debt exposure and earnings position.

The Star has been accused of falsifying mandatory welfare checks on poker machine players, failing to prevent a loss of some $3.2 million from a faulty gaming machine over a six-week period, and plotting to misconstrue that loss in the company’s half-yearly results.

Foster also suggested in another text to Cooke that they orchestrate a class action against the company’s special manager, Nick Weeks, and the NICC, and seek legal advice from King and Wood Mallesons.

Former Star boss Robbie Cooke.

Foster told the inquiry that the class action idea came from investors who wanted to know if they “could or should do anything” about the company’s battered share price. Foster refused to name any of the investors or financial stakeholders but repeated that it was not his suggestion.

He agreed with special counsel Caspar Conde, who said it was a “bizarre” idea.

“Did you not have better things to be doing in February 2024 than to be contriving of a way to sue the manager and or the NICC?” Conde asked.

Foster also conceded that he texted Cooke last April “in the heat of the moment” about “abolishing” the regulator. “Perhaps a different forum for that”, Cooke is alleged to have replied.

Foster said his messages related to wanting to establish a level playing field with pubs and clubs, which hold 98 per cent of the state’s poker machines but are not required to transition to mandatory carded play in the same timeframe.

He told the inquiry his messages referred to wanting to broaden the regulator’s scope to include pubs and clubs and not abolish it entirely.

Foster said another message to Cooke about “getting rid of Weeks” was also out of context and related to simplifying Weeks’ role to focus squarely on NSW and not entirely ousting him.

He said it was the board’s decision to instigate Cooke’s departure, contradicting an exit statement Cooke sent to the company’s 8000 employees saying he had quit at the end of last month. The board was not comfortable with this message, Foster said, which also referred to the breakdown in the relationship between the NSW regulator and the company.

Foster said he expressed as much at the time but did not stop Cooke from publishing it.

“But at that stage, Mr Cook was an employee. So couldn’t you have given him direction?” Conde asked.

“Possibly,” Foster replied.

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