The Star Entertainment Group ordered to pay A$260 million for AML/CTF breaches in Australia

The Federal Court has ordered The Star Entertainment Group to pay A$260 million ($182 million) after finding major breaches of Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) laws. For high-risk operators and their PSPs, the case is a reminder that weak source-of-funds checks, poor customer monitoring, and sloppy junket controls can turn into a very expensive regulatory problem.

1. The judgment, delivered by Justice Moore and published on Wednesday, follows lengthy civil proceedings that began in 2022 and investigations by both state and Commonwealth authorities into The Star’s activities in Queensland and New South Wales.
2. Justice Moore found that The Star “failed to maintain a compliant AML/CTF program and failed to monitor customers to identify, mitigate and manage money laundering and terrorism financing risks.” The court said the operator did not properly verify customer identity or sources of funds, failed to carry out sufficient due diligence and ongoing monitoring, and allowed transactions and cash deposits from third parties without recording their identities.
3. The court also found that The Star kept giving access to private gaming rooms despite observing suspicious activity, and that more than 1,200 customers were allowed to gamble via “high-risk channels” without adequate AML/CTF safeguards. Those failures, the judgment said, hindered AUSTRAC and law enforcement in tracking illicit funds and disrupting criminal activity.
4. Revenue was linked to junket operations exceeding $1.4 billion, with pre-COVID junket profits surpassing $100 million. The Star’s own estimates put revenue generated from high-risk customers between November 2016 and November 2022 at approximately $1.33 billion. Justice Moore said these figures “illustrate the potential to earn profits from a non-compliant approach” but do not directly quantify benefits derived from illegal conduct.
5. AUSTRAC Chief Executive Brendan Thomas said the penalty reflects the seriousness of the contraventions and adds deterrence value on top of previous state and Commonwealth fines. He said The Star did not just miss a few checks: it allowed high-risk customers to gamble without properly establishing where their money came from and operated a “private casino within its casino” with insufficient oversight.

The case is also tied to two former executives being found guilty of breaching the Corporations Act 2001. For casino, betting, and other high-risk merchants, the practical takeaway is straightforward: if your customer-risk controls cannot stand up in court, the acquiring and banking relationships built on top of them get shaky very fast.