A senior casino manager has admitted “knowingly misleading” the New South Wales gaming regulator about how gambling junkets operated inside a private high-roller wagering room at The Star Sydney.
Graeme Stevens, group compliance manager at Star Entertainment Group, resumed evidence on Friday at a royal commission-style inquiry into whether the gaming giant’s Sydney casino should keep its licence.
The NSW Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority is investigating whether The Star Sydney has been infiltrated by criminal activity such as money laundering, and if its casino licence should be stripped following highly critical media reports.
Stevens was quizzed about a building approval submission to the regulator for the casino’s private gaming room Salon 95.
The inquiry heard the submission made no reference to a window being installed to facilitate cash or chips into the room.
“You were accepting that nowhere in the submission was there any reference to the cage in Salon 95, or a buy in desk in Salon 95,” counsel assisting Nicholas Condylis said.
“Correct,” Stevens replied.
Asked if the submission was misleading, Stevens said: “It doesn’t detail that the junket operator was receiving cash from the players … that the junket operator subsequently used to buy in to the rebate program with us.”
“You knowingly misled the regulator,” Condylis put to the witness.
“Yes,” Stevens replied.
Inside Salon 95, junket operators were issued with “non-negotiable” chips to players who, if they won, exchanged those chips for “premium chips”, which were then exchanged back into non-negotiable chips, the inquiry was told.
Each junket was given one set of non-negotiable chips, which were offered in either Australian dollars or Hong Kong dollars.
The inquiry has already been told that Macau-based junket operator Suncity operated inside Salon 95 and was not to handle cash, but on Friday the probe was told of a Suncity limousine driver bringing bags of cash to the room’s service desk.
“It appeared as though the service desk was operating as an unlawful cage,” Adam Bell SC, who is leading the investigation, put to the witness.
“Yes … Perhaps the regulator should have been informed,” Stevens replied.
He conceded that the casino had “very little control” over what happened in Salon 95, agreeing that it was an “incredible” situation to occur in a casino in NSW.
A key issue under the spotlight at the inquiry is the casino’s so-called “international rebate business” – known as junkets – that involved huge marketing efforts to attract VIP patrons, many from mainland China, to gamble at The Star.
Earlier, Stevens defended his actions at the casino in 2013 and 2014, rejecting a suggestion from counsel assisting, Naomi Sharp SC, that he “deliberately set out to mislead the regulator about the use of the CUP (China Union Pay) card at the Star”.
He also denied trying to mislead the regulator by failing to disclose a casino “workaround” in relation to the CUP card at any time in 2013 or 2014, saying he “did not deliberately choose not to disclose anything to them”.
The inquiry has previously been told how China Union Pay – a Chinese financial services company – prohibited gambling transactions, but that Star could disguise wagering as hotel accommodation charges.
Around $900m was transacted on the CUP cards until terminals inside Star Entertainment casinos were disabled in 2020.
The public hearings were sparked by media reports accusing Star Entertainment of enabling suspected money laundering, organised crime, fraud and foreign interference at its gaming facilities, including The Star Sydney.
The inquiry continues.