Star Entertainment has been teetering on collapse for many years now. After Bally’s Corporation agreed to throw a lifeline to the company, offering an AU$300-million stake buyout and the promise of turning things around, there is one issue that neither company has accounted for – the Australian financial regulator’s proclivity for upholding the letter of the law.
AUSTRAC Seeks to Impose a Fair Financial Penalty
This is precisely what is happening with AUSTRAC now seeking to impose an AU$400-million fine ($260 million) on the property resulting from civil penalty proceedings against the operator. Essentially, Star Entertainment is buffeted by regulators over the same past transgressions – the company’s alleged “turning a blind eye” to criminal gangs who were laundering money on the venue’s gaming floors.
Ever since those discoveries were made, Star Entertainment has been threatened by large penalties, many of which have been applied, and the potential revocation of its license.