August 31, 2026 — 11:06amStar Entertainment reported a $307 million loss for 2026, including asset writedowns, as its auditors reiterated their significant doubts about the group’s survival. The loss follows reports from this masthead highlighting the group’s struggles with the reforms needed to win back its casino licences.Star chief executive, pokies billionaire Bruce Mathieson Jnr, acknowledged the challenges for the group, which should soon hear the outcomes of a fine for repeated money laundering breaches, and separately, its suitability to hold the licences to the casinos it operates.A leak of confidential documents has raised fresh concerns about the conduct of the embattled casino company run by pokies billionaire Bruce Mathieson Jnr.Monique Westerman“Returning to suitability remains critical to our future, and the work required to achieve that objective has and is being increasingly embedded in how we operate every day. We have made significant progress against our remediation commitments, which supported The Star’s submissions to the Queensland and New South Wales Governments on its suitability to hold casino licences in those jurisdictions, and we await the outcomes of those processes,” Mathieson told investors via the annual report.Star has been embroiled in a spiralling financial crisis since a high-powered inquiry into the casino in 2022, following allegations the company had enabled suspected money laundering and organised crime in its casinos. Gambling revenue has fallen and regulatory costs have mounted following the run of scandals – which led to the loss of all three casino licences.Recent reports in this masthead have raised questions about Star’s commitment to reforms to help it regain its casino licence, as its top executives try to make the casino operator financially viable under new regulatory restraints in NSW and Queensland.A leaked recording of Star Entertainment Group’s most senior executives has captured its Sydney casino boss and Mathieson jnr complaining of the risk and compliance measures forced onto the group.“We get these fines, which I think are just disproportionate to what is happening, and … all we’re doing is existing to pay a fine,” Mathieson jnr said.“We keep on restricting ourselves tighter and tighter. We’re coming to a pretty critical time with obviously licences and all that sort of stuff, but it should be quite obvious to everyone that unless we can breathe … every time we get up to breathe, we cop another hit.”These issues are separate to the auditors’ issues with Star, which rest on whether the group is capable of paying the impending fine from the financial crimes watchdog, Austrac.Star argued a fine of more than $100 million may be beyond its financial means. Austrac argued a fine of around $400 million was commensurate with Star’s wrongdoing. A court judgement on the fine could be handed down as soon as September.Star Entertainment chairman Soo Kim.Dominic LorrimerStar’s auditors flagged the material uncertainty on its ability to pay its bills as they fall due over the next year, “including in respect of the AUSTRAC proceeding, where the Group is reliant on the judgement of the Court as to quantum and timing being within the Groups’ capacity to pay, given its existing liquidity and ability to access any additional funding required.”Star chairman Soo Kim, who is chair of casino operator Bally’s - which injected hundreds of millions of dollars along with the Mathieson family to help save Star - acknowledged the tough task they still faced.“While we are no strangers to casino turnarounds, The Star is one of the most complex challenges we have encountered,” he said in the chairman’s message to investors in the annual report today.The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.From our partners