A team of Star Sydney employees tasked with complying with new responsible gaming regulations were found to have falsified records in a practice described today as “endemic” by the manager overseeing the casino’s improvement efforts.
In evidence given on the first day of the hearing in the second inquiry into the suitability of returning The Star Sydney’s casino license, Mr Nicholas Weekes, the government-appointed manager who currently holds the casino license, said: It was revealed that the act was discovered by Liquor Company late last year. & Gaming NSW inspectors found that recordings of interactions by so-called “guest support officers” did not match their own observations or video footage of the interactions in question.
Under recently introduced play time limits, Star’s guest support team can ensure that customers do not gamble on electronic gaming machines for more than three hours without interaction with a team member to check on their health status. We sought.
Instead, NSW Liquor and Gaming Industry Inspectors often find that no such interactions have taken place, despite records showing that such interactions have occurred. discovered.
Weeks said further investigation revealed that the records of the communications that allegedly took place on Star’s systems were false.
“This identification by Liquor and Gaming NSW launched an extensive investigation by the Star, which revealed evidence of falsification of records and practices of interactions with patrons by gaming support personnel and potentially other individuals. It became clear pretty quickly that this was prevalent within that team,” Weeks revealed. “This behavior appears to be occurring very frequently and a large portion of the team appears to have been involved in it.
“In the current climate, it is extremely concerning that such a significant and widespread breach related to falsification of records has occurred based on the information provided.”
Mr. Weeks also alleged that a defect in one or more ticket-in/ticket-out automated teller machines allowed customers to collect more money than they were owed during the period, which he called “TI#O fraud.” He also outlined the details of the incident, which he called “Tiko” (pronounced “tiko”). His two-month period in mid-2023. This flaw is observed when a customer inserts her two tickets at the same time. That is, instead of paying the total amount and keeping both tickets, the machine will pay the total amount, but after that he will return one of the tickets to the customer and allow him to use the ticket. Withdraw that amount again.
The defect cost Star overpayments of approximately A$3.2 million before it was eventually discovered.
“What I realized in this case is the level of rigor with which the controls are adhered to, the level of care with which the work is carried out, and the desire on the part of the business people to dig deeper. “It’s a big cultural issue, where we make decisions in situations that don’t seem right,” Weeks said.
“I was concerned about cultural issues. I also expected that balancing the books and counting money is something that casinos have been doing for years and are very good at it. One of the things we were concerned about was the administrative environment.”
Asked why he believed The Star Sydney had made questionable progress in changing its culture in the wake of the first Bell investigation, Mr Weeks said the Star had been in charge for almost a year after Scott Wharton’s resignation. He pointed out that he had not appointed a CEO for Star Sydney. In April 2022.
Star has since named Janelle Campbell as Sydney’s next CEO, although her formal appointment is still awaiting regulatory approval.
Last July, Star Entertainment Group announced a new organizational strategy led by new operating business units at each of the company’s three casinos, but Weeks said, “The lack of leadership has really undermined the ability of staff to achieve their goals. I think it’s damaged,” he said. [strategy].
“While the organizational structure has been announced to the broader company with the absence of a CEO at all three casinos, the lack of leadership has left me and the board with no responsibility to carry out the reorganization. I think it really hurt Star’s ability.”
“The CEO did not arrive at the Gold Coast facility until October last year and only arrived at the Brisbane and Sydney facilities in February this year. Leadership is established in the team with end-to-end accountability for P&L on regulatory matters. Until that happens, in my opinion, it will continue to be an obstacle to reform.”
