Fight to save jobs as The Star's casino empire teeters

Under-fire Star Entertainment has admitted it is battling serious financial woes as unions call for support to save the jobs of 8000 casino workers.

A week on from the release of a scathing report that declared it was unsuitable to take back control of its lucrative Sydney casino licence, the company’s board confirmed it was in talks over its short-term financial position “in light of adverse trading and other conditions”.

The Star has pushed back the release of its annual financial results, which were due to be delivered on Friday, triggering the suspension of its shares from ASX trade.

In a statement to the market late on Wednesday, the casino operator confirmed it had taken advice on steps it could take including calling on so-called “safe harbour provisions”.

Those provisions give company directors extra scope to restructure a financially distressed firm without the need to call in external administrators.

“The Star is currently reviewing its financial and liquidity position with various advisers in the context of seeking to finalise its preliminary financial report for the financial year,” the statement said.

United Workers Union casinos director Andrew Jones said employees should not have to pay the price for regulatory and operational failures, calling for state support to protect jobs.

“All parties - the company, regulators and governments - should be doing everything they can to keep Star’s doors open,” he said.

“For the sake of thousands of workers, their families, and their communities, there needs to be a commitment from all parties to providing the safe, stable workplaces our members deserve.”

Revenues from the casino operator’s three casinos - Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast - have been falling, although the firm delivered a slender profit in the first half of the 2024 financial year.

Since then, the firm has reportedly been hit with a cash shortfall due to cost blowouts at its $3.6 billion Queen’s Wharf casino in Brisbane’s city centre and a continued decline in trade.

Queensland Premier Steven Miles has indicated the state would consider tax relief for the troubled casino operator as it struggles to keep the Brisbane facility running just days after opening.

“We want to make sure taxpayers receive the full dividend from this project, but the fact is we won’t receive that dividend if the Queen’s Wharf Brisbane closes and 1400 people lose those jobs,” he said on Thursday.

“I think it’s appropriate for the government to look to what we can do to try to protect those jobs.”

But the NSW government has ruled out providing further taxpayer assistance to The Star after giving the casino a reprieve on a planned poker machine tax increase until 2030 in return for a transitional deal that included a jobs guarantee.

NSW Treasury secretary Michael Coutts-Trotter told a budget estimates hearing Star management had been advised the state was not prepared to waive or defer gambling or payroll taxes.

Officials from the state have raised concern any financial support would be used to prop up the flailing Queensland project rather than backing jobs in Sydney.

The Star’s Sydney licence remains suspended after a first inquiry found damning evidence of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism failings, although it has been allowed to keep the casino operating with a regulator-appointed manager.

A second inquiry declared in its recently released report the period since the last findings had been “marked by lost opportunities and missteps”, including four significant compliance breaches.