CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
In unsurprising news, Australia’s leading casino operators have this week begged both the New South Wales and Queensland state governments for over a billion dollars in tax breaks.
After being suspended for three days from the ASX, for failing to provide its accounts by last Friday, Star have arrived at both QLD and NSW State Parliaments with their hat in their hand.
The state governments have not revealed whether they will deliver this relief. Especially with a new metro rail to pay off in Sydney, and a fucking Olympics to build in Brisbane.
The very few Australians that have been exposed to this news through the rare media outlets that don’t rely on Star’s advertising dollars, are blown away by the hide on this corporation to ask for a bail out when we all know the punters who blow their savings in their casinos would never be treated to such a luxury.
But it’s not socialism when corporations go broke and need to be bailed out. No matter how fool-proof their business model is.
For Star, it doesn’t get more fool-proof. They are the only venues allowed to operate all night in Australia’s capital cities, with none of the same relentless fines and bureaucratic bullshit faced by smaller venues.
But now they are broke. Because they fucked it up.
This is just one of many of Star’s woes. Earlier this year, yet another independent inquiry by high profile barrister Adam Bell SC has found the casino unfit to hold a licence.
The inquiry found the group too slow to enact the required changes to minimise the amount of blatant crime that took place on the casino floor – and crucified the since departed senior management for a series of continued breaches, including fraud.
Ultimately, Star was able to continue operating, after the watchdog and government claimed to have felt sorry for their the 1000 or so people that make up their rapidly automating workforce.
But still, even with all of this supposed bad will. Star have still asked for the government to bail them out, claiming that their finances had been drained by huge cost blowouts at its new Brisbane casino development on the river at Queen’s Wharf.
This is despite Star having an operating casino less than 100 metres away from this construction site, and another on the Gold Coast and one in Sydney. Still, they are trying to tell us that those two enormous venues weren’t clearing enough in profit to pay for the day-to-day construction of the Queen’s Wharf – after the most streamlined development approval process since Sir Joh was in power.
But they’ll probably still get what they ask for because this is how that shit goes.
