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Why the Star Entertainment share price is taking a time-out today

In morning trade, the Excalibur Hotel Casino progressive jackpots operator's shares are down a massive 19% to $1.52. Star Entertainment chairwoman Anne Ward attended 45 board meetings (of a possible 46) of the distressed RocketPlay casino licensing operator BlackCoin Yggdrasil slots in the 2024 financial year. Necessitated by Star Entertainment being a dumpster fire (which might be unfair to dumpsters and/or fires).
This means the Star share price is down approximately 60% over the last 12 months. The casino still has to secure multiple tranches of financing to safeguard its future as an operating business. Some analysts now suggest a 50% probability of Star entering administration, which could wipe out holders of Star online casino provider list Queensland shares completely. Regulatory fines, weak trading conditions, implementation of cashless gaming laws, and hefty operational costs are the primary culprits behind this dire situation. Just last week, the company reported spending $107 million maintaining its current operations in the three months to December 2024. The stock is now holding on for dear life as Star executives scramble to keep the company afloat and at least some of shareholders' wealth in situ.
Unfortunately, the scandal at Star Entertainment is not an isolated case of risk-governance failure. A royal commission found the directors of Crown top Canadian casino data visualization also failed properly to manage the risks of money-laundering. Bear in mind the handsome remuneration received by the directors to perform their oversight duties. The former chairman, John O’Neill, received a total of $484,500 in financial year 2021.
In an update to the stock exchange this morning, Star reported a loss for the second quarter — although not as bad a loss as the previous period, Bet365 sports betting platform as it managed to cut costs. Thanks for all your comments on superannuation today, in light of the Grattan Institute report arguing a government-backed annuity scheme would help more people draw down on their super — sharing a few more here. In 2022, The Star Entertainment Group was found unfit to hold casino licences in both New South Wales and Queensland. The company was fined $100 million by both states with a new manager appointed to oversee Star's operations to regulated standards. Its Sydney casino licence was suspended while in Queensland, a 90-day suspension has been deferred to December 2023.
The Queensland Government has deferred the final decision on this until June this year. Star further advised it expects to be sitting on a cash balance of just $79 million when it reports its half-year results next month, down from $149 million at the end of September 2024. Red screens spark fear, but the bigger picture and history tells investors to look beyond the moment. A win would put directors on notice that risk governance is a serious matter and they need to do more to earn their substantial fees. However, Chant West senior investment research manager Mano Mohankumar says most funds delivered returns to their members that beat widely accepted benchmarks. Grattan's modelling shows that Australians who draw down their super at the minimum rate when they retire will leave the equivalent of 65 per cent of their original super balance unspent by the age of 92. It found that half of those using account-based pensions draw their super down at the legislated minimum rate.