Crown and Star: What Five State Casino Suitability Inquiries Actually Found

Last reviewed: 12 September 2026. As of this date, Australia's two largest casino operators, Crown Resorts and The Star Entertainment Group, have each been found unsuitable to hold a casino licence by at least one state regulator within the past five years, and Star's Sydney licence remains under active suspension and special-manager oversight. Neither company lost a licence outright following these findings; both were instead given a supervised reform period, a pattern that has now played out three times for Crown and twice for Star across four states. This article sets out what each inquiry found, what "unsuitable" actually triggers under state casino law, and where each licence stands today.

Federal: Why This Is a State Story, Not a Federal One

Federal law, principally the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (Cth) covered in this site's earlier analysis of section 15, governs whether an online gambling product can lawfully be offered to an Australian customer. It has no role in deciding who may hold a physical casino licence, or whether an existing licence-holder remains fit to keep it. That question sits entirely with the state or territory where a given casino physically operates, under that jurisdiction's own casino control legislation. Crown Sydney, Crown Melbourne, Crown Perth, The Star Sydney, The Star Gold Coast and Treasury Brisbane are each licensed, and each investigated, under a different state's own law, with no federal regulator involved in any of the findings below.

State: The Casino Control Acts Behind Each Inquiry

New South Wales licenses casinos under the Casino Control Act 1992 (NSW), which is also the Act under which Crown Sydney's 2021 suitability inquiry and both Star Sydney inquiries were held. Victoria licenses Crown Melbourne under its own casino control framework, and constituted a dedicated Royal Commission, a more formal instrument than a standing regulator's own review, to examine Crown's suitability there. Western Australia did the same for Crown Perth, via the Perth Casino Royal Commission. Queensland's framework covers The Star's Gold Coast and Brisbane properties under its own casino legislation, administered through the Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney-General rather than a dedicated commission. Four different pieces of state legislation, four different investigative bodies, and in every case, the same statutory question: does this operator remain a suitable person or corporation to hold the casino licence it has.

Regulator: Five Inquiries, One Repeated Structure

The Bergin Inquiry, formally conducted under section 143 of the NSW Casino Control Act 1992 and chaired by former Supreme Court judge Patricia Bergin SC, reported in February 2021 and found Crown Resorts unsuitable to hold the Crown Sydney (Barangaroo) licence, citing money laundering through Crown-linked bank accounts and facilitation of junket tour operators with organised crime links. Rather than revoking the licence, the then-regulator allowed Crown Sydney to open under a restricted, supervised licence with phased conditions and continued monitoring, including a further 2024 suitability assessment.

Victoria's Royal Commission into the Casino Operator and Licence, led by Commissioner Ray Finkelstein QC, reported in October 2021 and reached the same unsuitable finding for Crown Melbourne, but recommended a two-year reform period under an appointed Special Manager rather than immediate licence loss. The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission's final suitability determination, delivered 21 March 2024, found Crown Melbourne suitable and confirmed it would retain its licence, subject to continued oversight.

The Perth Casino Royal Commission, reporting in March 2022, found Crown Perth unsuitable on similar grounds, weak anti-money-laundering controls and governance failures, and again recommended a reform period rather than licence loss. Reporting from July 2025 indicates Crown Perth was assessed as suitable following the completion of that roughly three-year reform period; this specific 2025 determination is worth confirming against Western Australia's current regulatory record directly, since it sits close to the edge of what could be independently verified for this article.

Star Entertainment's NSW history runs to two separate inquiries under the same "Bell Review" name, both chaired by Adam Bell SC. The first, reporting September 2022, found Star unsuitable to hold its Sydney licence, citing money laundering control failures and conduct the report characterised as misleading regulators and auditors, including matters connected to China UnionPay card transactions. NSW's regulator suspended the licence and appointed a special manager rather than revoking it outright. A second Bell Review, reporting August 2024, found Star remained unsuitable, citing insufficient remediation since 2022; the NSW Independent Casino Commission fined Star $15 million and extended the suspension and special manager arrangement.

Queensland ran a parallel external review of Star's Queensland operations, with findings announced October 2022, reaching the same unsuitable conclusion for Star's Gold Coast and Brisbane properties and issuing show-cause notices, again followed by a reform period rather than immediate licence loss.

Two of these five inquiries were conducted by the regulator that would otherwise have licensed the operator directly; the other three, Victoria's and Western Australia's Royal Commissions and the NSW Bergin Inquiry's own statutory basis, used a more formal, judicially led investigative structure than an ordinary regulatory review, reflecting how seriously each state treated the underlying allegations, principally money laundering exposure and governance failure at board level, rather than routine licensing compliance issues. In every one of the five, the finding of unsuitability itself did not automatically end the licence; each state's own casino control legislation gives its regulator or a responsible minister discretion to impose conditions, appoint external oversight or set a remediation timeframe as an alternative to revocation, and every case here took that alternative path rather than the more severe one available under the same legislation.

NSW's regulatory structure changed as a direct consequence of this period. The Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority, the body that oversaw the original Bergin Inquiry and Crown Sydney's initial restricted licence, was replaced by the NSW Independent Casino Commission, a dedicated casino-specific regulator with its own standing powers, which is the body that conducted the 2024 Bell Review and now administers both Crown Sydney's ongoing suitability assessment and Star Sydney's suspension. Victoria made a comparable structural change, establishing the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission as the body responsible for Crown Melbourne's 2024 suitability determination, distinct from the general gambling regulator that preceded it. Both changes reflect a broader pattern across this period: state governments responding to a casino operator's own governance failure by strengthening the standing regulatory apparatus around future oversight, not only by acting against the specific operator found unsuitable at the time.

Operator: Where Crown and Star Actually Stand Today

Crown Resorts is no longer a publicly listed company. Blackstone completed its acquisition of Crown for approximately $8.9 billion in June 2022, delisting Crown from the ASX. All three of Crown's properties, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, have now been through their respective reform periods, with Melbourne's suitability confirmed in March 2024 and Perth's confirmed, per reporting from mid-2025, following the end of its own multi-year reform window; Sydney continues under NSW's 2024 suitability assessment framework.

Star Entertainment's position is materially less settled. As of the most recent confirmable reporting, Star's Sydney licence remains suspended and under special manager oversight, with that arrangement extended into late 2025 and reporting suggesting continuation beyond that point; Queensland has repeatedly deferred a decision on suspending the Gold Coast licence, most recently pushing the question into 2026. Star also faced serious financial distress through 2025, requiring an approximately $300 million rescue and recapitalisation deal led by Bally's Corporation, which cleared shareholder and regulatory approval around November 2025. Given how actively this specific situation has continued moving, a reader relying on this article for Star's current licence and financial status should check the NSW Independent Casino Commission's and Queensland Department of Justice's own current published record directly, rather than treat this reviewed date as current beyond it.

What This Pattern Actually Shows

Five separate state and territory inquiries, across four jurisdictions and two companies, have now reached the same underlying finding: a major Australian casino licensee found unsuitable, followed by a supervised reform period rather than an immediate licence revocation, followed in most instances by an eventual suitability finding once specific remediation conditions were met. That pattern says something about how Australian state casino regulation actually functions in practice: a suitability finding functions as a serious, consequential regulatory intervention, triggering fines, special managers and years of active oversight, rather than as an instrument that has, in any of these five cases so far, resulted in an operator losing its casino licence outright. Whether that remains true for Star's still-unresolved NSW and Queensland positions is, as of this review date, still an open question rather than a settled one.

Responsible Gambling

A licence, a suitability finding or a regulator's oversight describes how a casino operator is governed, not whether any game it offers can be beaten. Online casino gaming is restricted for Australian players under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001. Gambling Help Online provides free, confidential support and self-exclusion information, 24/7, at 1800 858 858.

Sources

NSW Independent Casino Commission, "The Bergin Inquiry" and "2022 Bell Review of The Star" and "2024 Bell Review into The Star," for NSW inquiry names, findings and outcomes.

Victorian Government, "Finkelstein Royal Commission" summary, and Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission, "Crown Melbourne Suitability Decision" (21 March 2024), for the Victorian inquiry and its outcome.

ABC News, "WA Government Responds to Crown Perth Royal Commission" (16 March 2023), and Yogonet, "Crown Perth Keeps Casino Licence After Three Year Reform Period" (8 July 2025), for the Western Australian inquiry and its 2025 outcome.

Blackstone, "Blackstone Completes Acquisition of Crown Resorts," for the 2022 ownership change and ASX delisting.

Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney-General, "Casino Reviews and Prosecutions," and ABC News, "Star Entertainment Found Unsuitable in Queensland" (6 October 2022), for the Queensland review.

NSW Independent Casino Commission, "Star Fined $15 Million, Licence Suspension for Review" (March 2025 notice), for the second Bell Review's penalty and extended suspension.

ABC News, "Star Entertainment $300 Million US Rescue Deal Approved" (21 November 2025), and Casino.org, "Star Shareholders Approve $300M Bally's-Led Rescue Deal," for Star's 2025 financial rescue.

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