The former managing director and CEO of embattled Star Entertainment Group recently told officials in New South Wales (NSW) that he feels “let down” by the senior team in charge of the company’s VIP operations.
As reported by Inside Asian Gaming, in public hearings last week, Matt Bekier testified that he accepted responsibility for illegal practices on his watch, including the illegal use of China Union Pay (CUP) cards to disguise gambling transactions and allowing the Suncity Group junket to operate its own VIP room at the Star Sydney.
“As CEO I was accountable and responsible for all parts of the company,” said Bekier, who resigned in March. At the same time, he blamed his staff for failing to keep him updated on how international VIPs were handled.
“When it came to the VIP-related matters … I had a failure of the first and the second line of defense,” Bekier said. “I feel let down by people in the risk team and people in the VIP team.”
Bekier also insisted it was difficult for the board of directors to know the internal workings of the VIP team. “It was very hard for the board to form [such a] view,” he said. “I didn’t think the business was out of control, and if I didn’t see those problems I’m not sure the board could have seen them.
“If the board of directors had known about any of these things, they would have supported me in shutting down that part of the business a long time ago.”
Paradoxically, though Bekier said the Star Entertainment Group culture was “very good,” he also said the VIP department engaged in a “dark art” to cultivate “whales,” the international high rollers who help to fill a casino’s coffers.
“The dark art of acquiring customers, to convince them to fly long range and gamble in our casinos, settle and collect the money—that’s very different from the rest of our business,” Bekier testified. “It’s a very specialized area and I was quite comfortable letting people with a lot of experience deal with that part of the business. Unfortunately it looks like the systems and standards and expectations that we have for everything else in the company somehow weren’t applied.”
He also said, “We are secretive and not transparent … We follow the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law.”
Bekier said using CUP cards to disguise gambling transactions as hotel-related payments was standard operating procedure; the “workaround” let Chinese players use debit cards at the hotel instead of on the gaming floor, where the use of debit and credit cards are banned. The former CEO said the advantage for Star was a reduced credit risk from customers.
Bekier resigned his position in March after the probe found evidence of money laundering, organized crime, fraud and other breaches at the Star casino. As happened previously with Crown Resorts, Liquor and Gaming NSW is examining the fitness of Star to hold a Sydney casino license.
Bekier denied a Sydney Morning Herald report that said he was aware of the illegal practices, which were recorded in an internal audit, but disregarded them.
