Australian casino operators Crown Resorts and Star Entertainment have formally agreed to new tax rates with the New South Wales (NSW) state government, after the arrangements were first announced in principle earlier this year.
The operators’ Sydney casinos, Star Sydney and Crown Sydney, will see their rates increase from 17.91 percent to 20.25 percent, backdated to July 1. Additionally, the duty on rebate play for non-local players will bump from 10 percent to 12.5 percent.
Star will also have an additional 35 percent tax on revenues that exceed AUD$1.125 billion (US$741,026,250) in any financial year.
Overall, the new agreements deal mostly with Star, as Star Sydney offers poker machines whereas Crown Sydney does not. When the tax hikes were first proposed back in December 2022 by the previous administration, Star’s financial outlook was slashed substantially due to steep poker machine levies—the company said it was blindsided by the announcement and was not consulted.
After months of negotiations with the new regime that was elected in March, Star was granted a last-minute reprieve on the machine tax increase until 2030, which was announced in August. One of the chief reasons for the reprieve, government officials said, was that Star Sydney is one of the biggest employers in the state, and therefore critical to the economy.
Now that the company appears to be saved from peril, at least for the time being, the NSW government said that it would soon introduce legislation to protect 3,000-plus jobs at the casino for the next six years.
“The formalization of these arrangements protects our Sydney team’s jobs and enables us to continue the important ongoing work required to restore The Star Sydney to suitability, and to earn back the trust of our stakeholders,” Star CEO and Managing Director Robbie Cooke said in a statement.
Overall, the new tax changes are expected to garner an additional AU $350 million ($230.5 million) in state revenue over the next three years.
According to the Canberra Times, state Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said that the casino tax negotiations were a “difficult” challenge that was inherited from the previous administration.
“The previous government had bungled their casino policy,” Mookhey said, per the Times. “These arrangements will see both casinos pay higher taxes.”
