Star Entertainment, the operator of two of Queensland’s biggest casinos, has been issued a $140,000 fine for allowing customers to use their credit cards illegally to purchase gambling chips. This follows an investigation led by the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation (OLGR).
Star Entertainment, which operates the Treasury Casino in Brisbane and the Star Gold Coast, pleaded guilty to breaching the Gambling Regulation Act 2003. The act states that customers must only use approved payment methods (e.g. cash, debit cards or cheques) for gambling purposes.
The investigation revealed that Star Entertainment had allowed customers to circumvent these rules by using their credit cards to buy gambling chips. This practice is illegal as credit cards are not listed as an approved payment method for such transactions.
On Wednesday, the Star pleaded guilty to eleven offences associated with its two casinos in Queensland earlier this March. As a result, they were ordered to pay a fine of $140,000, as well as court costs totaling $3,250.
During the period from 2017 to 2022, seven out of the eleven charges accused the operator of illegally accepting credit card wagers in excess of $170,000, as customers were granted the capability of utilizing their card to place large sums of money into their casino profile using EFTPOS machines on the property.
Despite having been warned a number of times by the OLGR about similar conduct in the past, The Star pleaded guilty to distributing promotional or advertising material about its casino in February 2022 to people they knew or should have known were excluded or banned from entering the casino. This illegal decision allowed customers to potentially gamble beyond their means.
