ShareIn recent months, the Australian poker community has been fighting back against the unexplained ban of at least eight prominent poker players by the Star Entertainment Group.
The bans have sparked protests and even a petition seeking an explanation, hoping for the reinstatement of the players’ right to play at Star venues.
Craig Abernethy, founder of australianpokerschedule.com.au sent the petition, with already more than 600 signatures, to Star Entertainment Group’s Compliance and Investigations Team, demanding some answers.
The text of the petition included the following:
“These players have contacted The Star who will not provide any detail on the reasoning or any explanation as to why they have been excluded quoting only ‘The Star is not required to provide reasons or justifying the exclusions nor the information relied upon making the decision to exclude’”
One of the reasons for the significant uproar was last month’s WPT Australia which is the biggest and most prestigious poker festival of the year in Australia.
Alex Lynskey, a final table participant at the 2018 WSOP Main Event is one of the banned players and was said to be distraught at not being able to attend and play. The fact that players can be arbitrarily banned without giving a reason is something that should worry poker players who make a living in the game.
“Not only have these players practiced and honed their poker skills, built their careers around poker and performed at the highest level of competition for more than a decade, but they have exemplary and long-standing reputations and are highly respected among the poker community including some internationally recognised.”
It has been suggested that the ban may be related to money laundering accusations lodged against the casino.
The casino may have issued exclusions to patrons who have made large transactions in the past in an attempt to appear proactive against these accusations, following myriad legal troubles over failures related to anti-money laundering regulations.
In 2022, the casino operator was ordered by a judge to lift its ban on two gamblers accused of cheating. The casino had argued that the gamblers used edge sorting, a technique to identify flaws in the cards to their advantage, as used in Phil Ivey’s infamous legal case.
However, the court ruled in favor of the gamblers, stating that if the casino staff had been competent, the gamblers would not have had an advantage.
The recent bans have come at a time when the Star Entertainment Group is still dealing with the fallout from multiple regulatory failures and massive fines resulting from its willingness to ignore anti-money laundering regulations.
The casino operator is now apparently tightening the screws so much that it’s arbitrarily banning poker players from its casinos without cause, although this has not been confirmed.
The poker community has tried to discuss the issue with Star Entertainment, as well as with the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation and Queensland government officials, but all avenues have led to dead ends. The lack of dialogue and transparency from the casino operator has only fueled the frustration and sense of injustice felt by the poker community.
