The Australian casino industry has been in strife for years, and the latest iteration is another inquiry into Sydney’s Star.
The second Bell review is currently underway and set to finish up in May looking at whether the Star’s license should be revoked.
This comes after the Star was fined $100 million 18 months ago as it was found unsuitable to run a casino, and an external manager was appointed.
Law and corporate governance specialist Helen Bird told The Briefing why our casinos seem to be so dodgy:
“I do wonder if the regulator here is basically saying, I’m holding this inquiry to publicly justify the decision I’m going to make, which is to remove the licence,” Bird said.
The second Bell review is set to run in private and could conceivably lead to Star having to close.
“We’re seeing a debate over the desirability of having casinos as a business in Australia and certainly too many being a socially obnoxious kind of business,” she said.
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