It’s a peculiar feeling, but today Crikey finds itself agreeing wholeheartedly with an editorial in the largely forgettable business tabloid The Australian Financial Review.
Usually a stern advocate for the interests of corporations, boards and corporate executives — even at the expense of investors — today the AFR rails against the piss-weak penalty handed out to Star Casino by the NSW gaming regulator after the shocking Bell inquiry into multiple instances of systemic misconduct at the casino.
Star will simply pay a fine and have its casino licence “suspended” while it continues to operate, until it is deemed fit to resume the licence.
That The Star will remain open during the suspension shows the claim that finding new owners would require a shutdown and job losses doesn’t wash. Instead, what has happened again is that the shareholders of a gaming company have been inappropriately shielded from the downside of appalling corporate misconduct at the expense of proper accountability. The lenient treatment for the wrongdoing that has stained Australia’s reputation as a clean place to do business is not good enough.
I can’t believe I’m typing this, but hear, hear.
The NSW Independent Casino Commission argues it’s all about saving the 4000 jobs at Star. Is it serious? Other industries are screaming for workers at a time of record low unemployment, and we’re worried about saving jobs? Ensuring workers can continue employment at a corporation riddled with money laundering, crime and exploitation of problem gamblers is the priority? “Doesn’t wash,” says the AFR. One can only agree.
Star and Crown are two of the most egregious examples of state capture currently on display in corporate Australia. They used political influence and big donations to convince politicians on both sides to neuter gaming regulators, paving the way for links to organised crime, massive money laundering, tax evasion and routine breaches of gaming laws.
Yet even after these crimes have been exposed by the media, leading finally to investigation and condemnation, they have been allowed to continue running casinos.
Both should have been the subject of the corporate equivalent of capital punishment. Instead they’ve continued on, minus a few directors and executives, but otherwise intact — with Crown having found a home in private equity firm Blackstone.
Australia has a serious, systemic problem with soft corruption and state capture by powerful industries. Gambling — and bear in mind, the pokies lobby makes Star and Crown look like bumbling amateurs — is one of the worst, but by no means the only one. The two casino operators were a chance for governments and regulators to send a signal that times had changed, that the old ways of doing business — employ an ex-Labor hack here, a former Liberal minister there, spend a million on donations — were no longer good enough.
It’s an opportunity badly missed by both the NSW and Victorian governments.
Australia has a serious, systemic problem with soft corruption and state capture by powerful industries. Gambling — and bear in mind, the pokies lobby makes Star and Crown look like bumbling amateurs — is one of the worst, but by no means the only one.
Yesterday Guardian Australia’s First Dog on the Moon captured the serious problem that governments have in saying no to the gambling industry with a depiction of the wall built to protect Flemington Race Course to prevent it being flooded – while the surrounding suburb was flooded, seemingly as a consequence of the wall.
Wonder how many jobs & livelihoods the Star has cost the problem gamblers on which it relies for profits? Taken with the rest of the money losing (gambling) industry it would eclipse the 4000 jobs ‘saved’ by the (non) regulator. As BK suggests there’d be many hundreds of vacant jobs, if not thousands, within the cafes, restaurants & pubs all round the Star & Crown casinos. I’m sure they would welcome the qualified & experienced staff with open arms.
Money laundering, criminals, bribes etc, why would you expect otherwise? It’s a casino!!
And it’s NSW.
I can believe that I am writing this about your article Bernard, but “Hear, Hear!!!”
I can tell you too, that without any equivocation or hesitation, I would shut this despicable, parasitical industry (casinos and poker machines) down in a picosecond. No questions asked!
The trouble with that is sending the industry underground, and we know how that ends up. We’ve had over a century of banning stuff only to see it get worse.
I’m not too sure about that Bref. I am not of the view that we just throw our hands up in the air and say “let her rip boys” because trying to control this egregious behavior is simply all too hard.
If we apply “harsh enough penalties” that prevent recidivist behavior then I think that would go a long way toward preventing re-offending. Also, in the cases of gambling (and with drugs as that is an area to which you are also clearly alluding), we need to put in place facilities where people who are likely to succumb to these temptations can go for help. My view is that you need to attack these problems using both the ‘carrot and the stick’ approach. Clearly, it would have been better never to have legalized poker machines or casinos in the first place.
NSW Premier Robin Askins was of that opinion – each Friday after work was paperbag night.
The cops delivered the bribes from Abe’s drinkin’, whorin’ & gamblin’ establishments and the proceeds divvied up.
If you send the industry “underground” then criminals can no longer use it for money laundering. Problem solved.
The new bagman was on ABC this evening and praised by Glover because “keeping the casino doors open means the employees have a job.”
Yes, Outis, think of all the extra employment that is created by these dens of iniquity. Extra work for lawyers acting for people who steal from others to enable them to ‘win back all the money that they have lost’, counsellors for gambling addicts and their family members who are at their wit’s end to try to deal with the addict, etc. What a way to ‘boost the economy’!
Considering how many politicians Star and Crown have bought, and that ordinary Aussies enjoy a day out at the casino, the NSW gaming regulator’s lettuce slap comes as no surprise.
But what’s up with the AFR? Why aren’t they playing along with the status quo?