Sydney’s Star Casino Has Been Accused Of Under-Reporting Violent Assaults
The casino is outside the lockout zone.
The Star casino in Sydney is one of the city’s most violent venues, but has regularly been exempted from NSW government policies designed to crack down on alcohol fuelled violence. The casino sits just outside the CBD lockout zone and according to reports business is booming.
It Looks Like NSW’s Lockout Laws Are About To Be (Very Slightly) Relaxed
Once other venues stop serving alcohol or close up shop entirely, there’s nowhere else to turn. The Star is pretty much it. Okay, there’s the Pyrmont Bridge Hotel, but at least you can dance at Marquee, one of the casino’s clubs.
Government data has shown that there’s been an increase in the number of violent assaults at the casino since the lockout laws were introduced. But according to a leaked report, the official figures aren’t capturing the full scale of violent incidents at The Star.
The ABC is reporting that The Star is allegedly “hiding the full extent of violence at the venue”. According to a confidential Department of Justice review, obtained by the ABC, casino employees weren’t properly recording violent incidents as assaults, leading to under-reporting. The casino also failed to notify police of most of the incidents.
Once all the figures are taken into account it turns out there are 250 violent assaults at The Star ever year, compared to just 21 at the Plantation Hotel in Coffs Harbour — officially rated as the state’s most violent venue. The statistics show that the level of violent assaults at The Star is three times worse than what the casino is officially reporting.
Keep Sydney Open have jumped on the figures as evidence that Sydney’s lockout laws aren’t working. “We have long said that the lockouts don’t do anything to address the actual causes of violence,” they wrote on Facebook. “Instead the lockouts have only moved the problem around, often out of plain sight and into places where it is harder for the community and the police to monitor and respond to it.”
Even though the casino is currently outside the lockout zone, according to former Premier Barry O’Farrell, the architect of the lockout laws, the legislation allows the zone to be extended.
@MarkDiStef original legislation allowed zone to be extended if violence increased elsewhere. If figures stack up, it's pretty easy to do.
— Barry O'Farrell (@barryofarrell) October 31, 2016
We won’t be holding out breath.