Australian casino to pay $9 million in back pay to employees

The management of gambling company Star Entertainment, which owns the casinos The Star Sydney, Gold Coast and Treasury Casino, apologized to its staff and announced the repayment of arrears totaling $9 million.

The company will pay wage arrears, interest and superannuation contributions totaling $9.27 million.

“We apologise to any team member who was affected by the shortfall in payments, and we are committed to doing the right thing, acting transparently. Our priority is to resolve this issue and make sure it does not happen again”, said Star Entertainment CEO Matt Bekker.

The gambling corporation also said that “the pandemic is starting to ease its negative impact on the business, and operations continue to gradually improve”.

According to Star representatives, the payroll shortfall began in 2016, and amounted to $2.35 billion, which the company paid to its employees over a six-year period. The main reason for the payroll shortfall at the casinos was cited as employees working overtime.

Earlier, The Star management in Sydney fired gaming manager Minh Nguyen over her gambling addiction. Between 2020 and 2021 Nguyen borrowed more than $7,000 from her employees for gambling. The manager gave her subordinates lifts home and asked them for money. It is known that Nguyen did not repay the money for several months, but employees were afraid to discuss it with the casino’s senior management.

The Australian gambling regulator revoked the licence of the manager at The Star, and she was also added to the players’ blacklist.