Star Sydney Inquiry Hears Fiery Robbie Cooke Testimony

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In Australia, the second inquiry  into the casino license suitability of The Star Sydney has reportedly heard evidence from one of the key men behind the property’s The Star Entertainment Group Limited parent, Robbie Cooke.

The 15-week examination from the New South Wales Independent Casino Commission (NICC) regulator is investigating whether the 351-room venue should be permitted to hold a full casino license after an initial 2022 probe found it wanting in terms of its cultural, communications and anti-money laundering processes. 

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• Second Inquiry into The Star Sydney to Involve Public Hearings

Debateable Deferment

Despite this bad news, which also included revelations that The Star Sydney had potentially misclassified some $600 million in debit card gambling transactions, the five-star venue was controversially allowed to keep its NICC-issued casino license on a provisional basis.

It was required to pay a record fine of just over $65 million and clean up its act via the completion of a remediation plan under the supervision of independent manager Nicholas Weeks.

The follow-up inquiry is now being run to determine if The Star Sydney has satisfactorily completed this process but has already heard damning evidence regarding the venue’s senior leadership. 

The Australian Financial Review reports this included a revelation Cooke, the former Chief Executive Officer for The Star Entertainment Group Limited, and the company’s current Chair, David Foster, had surreptitiously accessed Weeks’ diary and proposed launching a shareholder class-action lawsuit in order to discredit the manager.

Alarm Argument 

When asked about a message he sent to Foster in January where the two had discussed ‘preparing for war’ over a meeting Weeks was scheduled to attend with lawyers, Cooke reportedly confessed to being on ‘high alert’ with a sense of feeling ‘a little under assault’.

“Paranoid is a strong word, but I agree my response may have been a little bit emotive,” Cooke said on Wednesday. “I’d say I felt that we were under some form of attack.”

Derogatory Description

Cooke was appointed to serve as the Chief Executive Officer for the Brisbane-headquartered casino operator in October of 2022, following a six-year spell as the boss of Australian financial services firm Tyro Payments Limited. 

However, the 59-year-old surprisingly resigned in March after the NICC purportedly asserted he was ‘arrogant’ and not rapidly working to correct the governance and cultural issues uncovered by the first inquiry. 

As part of his testimony, Cooke reportedly denied seeking legal advice about bringing a class-action lawsuit against Weeks before going on to refute a suggestion that any such move would have been improper.

“I don’t accept it was entirely inappropriate if my Chair asked me to look at something but I don’t think it was a good idea,” Cooke said.

Critical Concern 

For his part, Foster gave evidence to the inquiry on Tuesday and reportedly conceded his firm was not currently suitable to operate a casino in New South Wales and there was ‘not a scenario’ where it would be able to run The Star Sydney unsupervised. 

The former Suncorp Bank boss is said to have additionally admitted to being ‘trigger happy’ with regards to his opinion on getting rid of Weeks.

Anne Ward serves on the board of The Star Entertainment Group Limited, which moreover runs Queensland’s The Star Gold Coast and Treasury Casino and Hotel properties, and reportedly told the inquiry the actions of Cooke and Foster had likely damaged trust in the company. 

She purportedly also testified on Wednesday about voting for the former figure to leave the business at a December meeting before adding that she had been in the minority.

“My view was, having considered the matter, I felt he should leave the business,” Ward said. 

“To the best of my recollection, other directors were in the process of forming the view that Cooke needed to go. In the minds of some, I believe at that point it was a question of when rather than if. In my mind, I had decided the sooner the better.”