Australia’s Star Entertainment Group has revealed that daily average revenue at its Sydney casino has fallen by 10.7% since the introduction of mandatory carded play and AU$5,000 cash limits in certain areas a little over a month ago.
The period in question spans 19 August to 24 September 2024 and pre-empts a wider rollout of new regulatory requirements to the entire gaming floor by 19 October. The daily amount of cash customers will be permitted to use will drop to just AU$1,000 by 19 August 2025, while discussions with regulators on similar restrictions at Star’s Queensland casinos are ongoing.
Releasing its FY24 financial results on Thursday, which saw the company fall to an AU$1.69 billion loss, Star said it “expects these regulatory changes to have a negative impact on the earnings of the business”, although “the impact remains uncertain and is unable to be quantified by The Star at this point in time.”
This, Star added, is on top of an already declining trading environment which it said “continued to deteriorate across all of The Star’s properties” since the company’s last trading update in June, “driven by a reduction in revenue as well as higher operating expenses.”
From a monthly EBITDA run-rate of around AU$19 million between July 2023 and January 2024 to a run-rate of around AU$4.6 million over the last five months. Star reported an EBITDA loss in July and August.
There has, however, been some promising signs at the recently opened The Star Brisbane.
“Visitation to the property was strong over opening weekend, with significant interest in the property given the anticipation of opening and noting opening weekend coincided with the Riverfire Festival in Brisbane,” the company said.
“Post this initial trading period, for the week ended 10 September, gaming revenue was up almost 20% on the average weekly performance at Treasury in September 2023, noting this reflects a short time period.”
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