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Star casino chief Robbie Cooke reveals company's financial state after mass lay-offs
Less than a year into the top job with beleaguered casino giant Star Entertainment Group, Robbie Cooke is surprisingly frank about the catalogue of crises he has had to manage.
"We are issues rich — there are a lot of challenges," he quipped to an audience of business leaders at a breakfast held at Star's Gold Coast casino.
In the chief executive's first public appearance in Queensland since Star announced it would slash 500 job cuts in an ASX filing last month, Mr Cooke revealed that the cutbacks were "probably the hardest thing" he has had to do.
The decision to axe more than five per cent of its workforce was the latest sorry chapter for the casino, which was last year declared unsuitable to hold a casino licence in Queensland and New South Wales.
The company was fined $100 million by both states after inquiries revealed its failure to comply with anti-money laundering obligations allowed organised crime to thrive at its casinos.
Billions of dollars were wiped off its value as its share price tanked, plummeting to $1.22 after trading at $4.07 in 2021.
The Star is now facing four class action lawsuits from investors and is being prosecuted by AUSTRAC, the Commonwealth's financial crime watchdog.
Mr Cooke said while the scandals, exclusion of foreign high-roller clients by regulators and softening consumer confidence all contributed to the company's financial performance "falling off a cliff", then came a NSW government pokies tax hike.
He said the then-Liberal treasurer Matt Kean doubled the tax rate on the Star Sydney's casino poker machine profits to 60.7 per cent, leaving the company blindsided.
"We found out from journos ringing us," Mr Cooke said.
"There was no consultation.
"Our share price dropped 30 per cent on the day it was announced.
"The treasury junior who told the treasurer that it wouldn't have a material impact on our business was so wrong."
The NSW government says it will consider scrapping the planned increase to the pokie tax, which is what the United Workers Union is also calling for in a bid to prevent further job cuts.
Mr Cooke also pushed back on the "pile-on" the casino has experienced since its failings were exposed in a scathing report on its Queensland operations by former Court of Appeal judge Robert Gotterson.
"When your social licence gets damaged, which ours definitely did, you become friendless and it becomes very easy for regulators, politicians and the community to say, 'You are bad actors, you deserve what you are getting and hey, here's some more,'" Mr Cooke said.
"Star and Crown got themselves into trouble because they were trying to attract a particular demographic to their properties and were almost in a head-to-head contest about bringing junket players in from overseas.
"They didn't have the right financial crimes systems in place to actually control that.
"You ended up in this competitive, ego-driven battle to gain market share.
"We have stopped the junket business and have said we are never going back to that space again."
The Star is preparing a "remediation roadmap" for the Queensland attorney-general ahead of the opening of its $3.6 billion Queen's Wharf development in December.
The development's sky deck, which will sit 100 metres above the Brisbane River, will likely be craned in to place next month.
"If you look at it from the outside you would think it's still a big construction site but our gaming floors on levels five and six are completed," Mr Cooke said.
"The carpet is in, all the screens are in, the food and beverage offerings are in.
"You can pour beers in there at the moment."
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