The Star CEO ‘had to go’: Greens anti-corruption spokesperson
Image: The CEO of The Star, Matt Bekier, resigned on Monday. Photo: Trivago.
By DANIEL LO SURDO
It was “clear” that the CEO of The Star Entertainment Group had to resign amid a public hearing into the suitability of the company’s Pyrmont casino licence, according to the NSW Greens’ anti-corruption spokesperson.
Matt Bekier, the CEO of The Star Entertainment Group, resigned on Monday amid an Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) inquiry that has found the company disguised $900 million of Chinese debit card gambling transactions as hotel expenses, and developed “workarounds” to accept prohibited debit cards for gambling.
According to The Star’s Chairman John O’Neill, Mr Bekier told the board that he was resigning because he was “accountable for the effectiveness and adequacy of the company’s processes, policies, people and culture”.
Jamie Parker, the State Member for Balmain and Greens’ anti-corruption spokesperson, told City Hub that the resignation “does nothing to address the fundamental failings of the organisation” and that “it’s clear that the evidence of … criminal infiltration and money laundering should bar them [from] holding a casino licence”, adding that “the right thing to do was for him to take responsibility”.
Mr Bekier’s resignation comes during the third week of the ILGA’s inquiry and comes on the same day that The Star’s regulatory manager David Aloi said that the casino used “workarounds” to allow guests who banked with China Union Pay to gamble, with the arrangement swiping the bank cards of guests at The Star’s hotel and then transferring it to gambling funds. Gambling is illegal in China and hence, China Union Pay does not allow gambling transactions on their cards.
Mr Aloi said he was told to “get it done” when he raised concerns about the arrangement, adding that the company’s account manager did not intervene when the system was flagged with him.
The Star hid $900 million of gambling transactions as hotel expenses
On the first day of hearings earlier this month, the inquiry found that The Star disguised $900 million of gambling transactions from Chinese debit cards as hotel expenses, and misled banks to ward off suspicion.
In March 2020, The Star stopped accepting Union Pay cards after receiving a warning from National Australia Bank (NAB) and Union Pay, after NAB contacted The Star in June 2019 to relay concerns from Union Pay of transactions being used for large-scale gambling.
It comes after The Star’s rival Crown Resorts had been deemed unfit to run its Sydney and Melbourne casinos, with Crown having also conducted a Union Pay arrangement at its Melbourne location, with a Victorian royal commission hearing last year that gambling transactions were also hidden as hotel expenses.
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