The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has taken former Star Entertainment CEO Matt Bekier to the Federal Court, seeking to ban him from managing any...
Star Sydney fined $7.2M over risk management failures
Australia’s New South Wales gaming regulator has imposed a $7.2 million fine on Star Entertainment’s Sydney casino over financial crime risk management breaches.
In addition to the fine, the Independent Casino Commission (NICC) also ordered the operator to allocate $5 million to upgrade its financial crime risk operations. At the moment, Star’s Sydney license is still suspended, and the venue is under the supervision of a NICC-appointed manager.
The enforcement actions are the result of a Liquor and Gaming investigation conducted last year, which revealed thousands of violations between December 2018 and September 2025. While some breaches were reported by the operator itself, others were found through Star’s remediation program.
Four main categories of violations were identified: the casino converted reward points into cash, allowed excluded players to enter the casino, let gamblers play for more than 36 hours at once, and had systemic failures in financial crime monitoring.
NICC Chief Commissioner Philip Crawford commented:
“While these disciplinary matters are disappointing, we have seen considerable progress at The Star under their new leadership. Imposing these fines along with the enforceable undertaking reiterates the seriousness with which the NICC considers any breaches that leave customers vulnerable to gambling harm or casinos vulnerable to criminal infiltration.”
At the same time, the commissioner noted that a lot of the breaches happened before remediation processes were launched, like the upgrade to carded play.
Star is currently facing increasing pressure from regulators and has also suffered revenue losses in 2026 as a result of regulatory reforms and the introduction of mandatory carded play. The casino hasn’t yet commented on the penalty.
Australia has revealed plans to introduce new gambling reforms in response to late Labor MP Peta Murphy’s parliamentary measure to limit gambling advertising and reduce the...
