A casino operator facing a potential penalty of hundreds of millions of dollars for historical anti-money laundering breaches has optimistically predicted the “fire is out” for the troubled group.
Star Entertainment Group, which owns casinos in Sydney and the Gold Coast and operates one in Brisbane, has been dealing with a raft of scandals and license suspensions involving years of money laundering, organised crime infiltration and governance failures.
US gaming giant Bally’s Corp took a 38 per cent stake in Star as part of a $300 million rescue package in 2025, allowing its chair, Soo Kim, to step up to the same position at Star nine months ago.
“I didn’t come here to say ‘mission accomplished’,” Mr Kim told the gaming group’s annual general meeting of shareholders on Tuesday.
“I came here to say, the fire is out, and now the rebuilding starts.”
Star’s biggest problem now is its poor treatment of gamblers who spend large amounts of money, Mr Kim believes.
“I continue to be mystified, horrified by how we’ve been treating our VIPs of late,” he said.
“Our ill treatment of our own VIPs is actually so obvious that we know that’s our No. 1 problem, but also No. 1 opportunity.”
Many VIPs simply can’t get through Star’s enhanced due diligence and know-your-customer requirements, Mr Kim argued at the meeting in Sydney.
The casino group has for years been dealing with the regulatory fallout after high rollers with links to organised crime were allowed to launder money at Star’s casinos.
Star has previously blamed mandatory carded play and $5000 cash limits imposed by regulators at The Star Sydney for a drop in revenue.
Since those limits were imposed on October 19, 2024, average daily revenue at the Star Sydney is down 20 per cent, compared to its average revenue from before the reforms were imposed, Star has said.
Mr Kim said that Star could not blame regulators for how it treated VIPs, given that many were choosing to game at Crown resorts instead.
“How could you blame the regulatory rules if the other operator across the way is able to, under the same regulatory construct, welcome these customers?” Mr Kim said.
“I would think that it’s our execution of the rules that is incorrect.”
The vast majority of customers weren’t involved in malfeasance or unwanted behaviour and the company should welcome them, he added.
Star has not been involved with the junket travel operators that led to many of its problems since 2018.
Star Sydney and Star Gold Coast were now cash flow positive while group cash flow was now about $200 million, Mr Kim said, which was “quite a different story than just nine months ago” when it was burning more than $20 million a month.
Star will hear on Wednesday what financial penalty the Federal Court will impose for its historic money-laundering violations.
Financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC requested a $400 million penalty during a June 2025 court hearing, an amount Star has said would send it into administration.
But Mr Kim kept the mood light, joking about reports that this could be both his first and last shareholder meeting if the company was forced into insolvency.
“I was told that our prospects were so grim as a company that we won’t have any more annual meetings,” he said.
“I would like to respectfully disagree – I think there’ll be many, many more.”
Around 2pm, Star shares were changing hands at a five-week high of 14 cents, up 17.4 per cent for the day but down 20.6 per cent since the start of the year.
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