Robbie Cooke said he felt under attack by Star’s regulator. Has this ‘us and them’ mentality really left the casino operator?
Already a subscriber?There’s been a distinct military feel to the second inquiry into Star Entertainment, thanks to the infamous texts between chairman David Foster and former chief executive Robbie Cooke in February suggesting the casino operatorWhen Cooke finally appeared before the inquiry on Wednesday, he continued that theme, suggesting that he felt “under a bit of assault” and “under attack” by a regulator that Star clearly believed had gone too far.
In late January, Cooke prepared, and Foster co-signed, a response to reports by the Star’s special manager, Nicholas Weeks,; Cooke said in a text to Foster that the fireworks following the response would be “bright and loud”. The NICC didn’t react well to the response, which is hardly a surprise given this was effectively a triple middle finger to the regulator. Not only had Star’s board effectively ignored the regulator’s message that it should move Cooke on, but it allowed Cooke to prepare and sign the explosive formal response to Weeks’ reports, and then allowed Cooke to juice the response with a confrontational tone.Cooke and Ward both said on Wednesday that they regretted the tone of the response.
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