Once perceived as the glittering symbol of city sophistication, Australia's biggest listed casino group has found itself reduced to the status of last chance saloon.

In an extraordinary turn of events, Star Entertainment Group's corporate reputation once again has been shredded by a formal inquiry.

This time, it was a blistering assessment of management's failed efforts to restore its tarnished reputation and fix a culture found to be rotten to the core.

In addition, the group's financial viability is hanging by a thread.

Its casino assets require massive write-downs in their value, while tighter gaming regulations and a slowing economy have hit its revenues.

For the second time in two years, an independent inquiry by high profile barrister Adam Bell SC has found the casino unfit to hold a licence.

It found the group too slow to enact the required changes and slammed the since departed senior management for a series of continued breaches, including fraud. 

But it has been extended another lifeline following yet another management overhaul and the recent appointment of high profile business leader Steve McCann, who is looked upon favourably by the NSW Independent Casino Commission.

The scathing report was unveiled just hours before the group – which operates casinos in Sydney, Brisbane and on the Gold Coast – was supposed to deliver its annual financial results, which were expected to reveal an operation in serious financial strife. 

The results had not yet to be released at the time of publication.

Ironically, the cause for much of the financial pain is Star’s newly constructed Brisbane casino in the $3.6 billion Queen's Wharf precinct, which opened with great hoopla just on Thursday.

A blowout in construction costs at Queen's Wharf has placed the group's already shaky future in jeopardy. 

Forget reform, Star goes to war

The first Bell inquiry found the company unfit to hold a casino licence, suspended it indefinitely and allowed it to operate only after a government representative was appointed to oversee Star's overhauled management.

Like its counterpart, Victorian-based Crown Resorts, the Bell inquiry found Star had allowed organised crime bosses, including triad gangs from Macau, to run gambling operations out of its premises.

But in a breathtaking display of arrogance, Star's replacement management instead went to war with the casino regulator, forcing it to call for a second inquiry.

According to evidence at the second Bell hearing, the now departed chairman David Foster and former chief executive Robbie Cook concocted a plan to have shareholders launch a class action against the NSW Independent Casino Commission and the man parachuted in by the NSW and Queensland governments to temporarily hold the licence, Nicholas Weeks.

Both Mr Foster and Mr Cook had been appointed in the aftermath of the first Bell inquiry and were tasked with the job of putting Star Entertainment back on track.

But Mr Weeks revealed the pair instead were plotting to oust him from the company, which convinced him they were focused on the wrong things.

"I find it extraordinary that the chairman of a listed company and its chief executive would exchange messages contemplating a class action against me personally and the regulator in circumstances where their public position with me is that they're working co-operatively to address deficiencies that they need to address," he told the latest inquiry.

The Bell report slammed both the former chairman and chief executive, along with current directors, for their combative approach and for their failure to implement reforms in key areas such as probity, anti-money laundering and responsible gambling.

It also found the previous leadership team centralised power, leaving the Sydney casino without a proper manager for an extended period, that resulted in reforms being introduced but never implemented.

NSW Independent Casino chairman Phil Crawford said in statement that the report vindicated the commission's decision to hold a new inquiry.

"The Bell Report reveals a company that had not moved quickly enough to address the governance and cultural concerns raised in the first Bell Report," Mr Crawford said.

"It has only very recently turned its attention to dealing with challenges that should have been prioritised earlier."

Can McCann save Star?

Steve McCann has his work cut out for him.

In the job for just four weeks, Star Entertainment's new chief executive is under no illusions about the challenges he faces.

As well as facing multiple investigations from the corporate regulator and the anti-money laundering authority, it is also facing several class actions.

In addition, Mr McCann is desperately attempting to placate the banking syndicate that stumped up new facilities just over a year ago and the company's auditors as he seeks new investment cash to shore up the books.

Then there's the horde of angry shareholders who last year forked out more than $1.5 billion to help get the company back on track.

The first lot shelled out $1.20 a share in February last year while the second raising was struck at just 60 cents.

On Thursday, Star Entertainment shares were trading at just 45.5c.

Star's shares were suspended before the report was released on Friday morning and could remain in limbo while negotiations with the NSW casino regulator and financial backers continue.

Prior to Star, he was parachuted into the unholy mess that was Crown Entertainment where he resurrected the outfit's tarnished reputation, kept the operations afloat and ultimately oversaw the sale of the company to major American casino outfit Blackstone.

He is also likely to be one of the few executives capable of sorting through the real estate issues crippling Star's finances, given his long-standing role at the helm of property giant Lend Lease.

A brief history of casino corruption

Incredibly, both Star and Crown for years worked off the same business model with key staff jumping between the two organisations.

Alarmingly, both companies used exactly the same organisation out of Macau, which had links to criminal triad gangs.

In 2014, ABC's Four Corners revealed the extent of the criminal activity involved in enticing Chinese high rollers into Melbourne's Crown casino.

But it wasn't until 2019 that Suncity, run by Alvin Chau, shut down its Crown junket room and despite revelations from the Finkelstein Royal Commission into Crown about Suncity, the Sydney-based Star continued its association.

Chau, once Macau’s biggest junket operator was jailed last year for 18 years for running a criminal organisation.

While junket operators – which transport wealthy gamblers to destinations around the world – are common, they were allowed to operate well outside expected norms in Australia.

Rather than simply being delivered to a casino to gamble in the casino, Suncity ran its own rooms in Crown and Star, effectively operating a casino for wealthy Chinese punters within the casino and creating a secretive enclave for nefarious activities.

That it went undetected for years with no action either by state and federal governments speaks volumes about the power of Australia's gambling lobby.