Shares in Star Entertainment suspended from trade as casino operator remains on brink of collapse

Star chief executive Steve McCann has unsuccessfully tried to coax lenders, state governments and investors into giving the embattled Viva Las Venice crypto casino providers operator the time and cash needed to work through its challenges. Embattled casino operator Star Entertainment has warned that it faces "material uncertainty" over its ability to stay afloat unless it finds a solution to its worsening financial woes, sparking a further drop in the company’s share price. Shares in The Star Entertainment Group Limited ("Star") tanked last week after their first day back on the ASX in almost a month. This ended a prolonged trading halt further aggravated by a slap-on-the-wrist ASX suspension for failure to provide timely financial accounts.

A second inquiry last year uncovered several additional license breaches, including falsifying records. The top Australian mobile casino smartwatch app has been overseen by a government-appointed manager since the 2022 report. More than 8000 jobs are on the line, with the company running out of time and money to keep its casinos open. Star acknowledged via the ASX that its shares had been automatically suspended but did not update the market on the status of financing offers it expected to receive on Friday. Bell’s original report outlined anti-money laundering and social responsibility failings at The Star Sydney stretching back years. A year later, a report into Star Sydney’s progress found the casino had implemented 22 of 30 recommended measures from the Bell report.

Remember that individual shares or investments should only be considered as part of a broader investing strategy. So first is the cyclical downturn in discretionary spending that's weighing on main floor gaming. We do expect VIP gaming to come back to levels much, much lower than it was pre-COVID. This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. The potential collapse of the company puts the jobs of about 9,000 workers across its three casinos on the line. The casino group could be broken up in the process, as administrators would search for buyers for individual assets, if the company can't be rescued as a whole.

Star investors who got excited on Monday by the left-field emergence of a mystery Macau buyer of the rocketplay casino poker’s shares would be wise to curb their enthusiasm. There is nothing about Xingchun Wang’s taking a 5.5 per cent stake that looks like a white knight rescue attempt. Morningstar lowers our Uncertainty Rating from Extreme to very high after the results of the second bell inquiry were passed down. The scrutiny into Star’s suitability to hold a casino licence ended in the best online blackjack 2026 plausible outcome that the company could have hoped for. Whilst they are currently deemed unsuitable to hold a JeetCity casino social media presence license, the enquiry ruled that the license need not be revoked entirely. Star’s core asset is The Star Sydney, which at one point was generating ~70% of the group’s earnings as the only casino in Sydney.

The European Central Bank has cut interest rates as expected on Thursday and kept the door ajar to more, even as a looming trade war with the US and plans to boost military spending drive Europe's biggest economic policy upheaval in decades. Tony Sycamore from IG has circulated a note that highlights how dire the price action has been on the stock market in recent weeks. ABS head of business statistics Robert Ewing said that while spending on goods pushed up overall spending in late 2024, a 1.5 per cent rise for services drove the January growth. The executive order creates a US digital asset stockpile but the US will not sell any Bitcoin deposited into the reserve.

The second inquiry, dubbed Bell 2 when launched in February, was published on Friday and "validated the concerns that prompted the second inquiry" according to the NICC. The body said it is considering next steps for the future of the suspended casino operator. The financial crime watchdog says the court should disregard Australian casino payment methods operator’s threat that it would collapse under the weight of a $400 million fine. The price of Bitcoin plummeted on Friday after the US government signalled it would not acquire additional cryptocurrencies for its strategic reserve beyond its current holdings. Overall, spending on both debit and personal credit cards rose by $207 million in the month and $3.1 billion compared to the same time one year ago. Canstar analysis of RBA figures shows credit card debt attracting interest charges has risen every January since 2015. The price of Bitcoin plummeted on Friday after US President Donald Trump's administration signalled it would not acquire additional cryptocurrencies for its strategic reserve beyond its current holdings.