Management dysfunction, falsification of customer welfare checks, disclosure discrepancies, a plot for a coup, and a $3.2 million theft by patrons are just a taste of the fresh allegations made against Star Entertainment as a second public inquiry looks under the hood of the casino that is operating under an already suspended licence.

The first day’s hearing of the inquiry under Adam Bell, SC, paints a portrait of a public company at war with the regulator – the authority in whose hands sit the casino’s fate. It has the power to either reinstate the licence, have it continue with the current provisional status, or order complete disqualification.

Day one of this inquiry makes for compelling listening for all but Star Entertainment shareholders, who must appreciate the catastrophic financial risks of losing its NSW licence. It certainly won’t be lost on pubs and pokies baron Bruce Mathieson, who holds more than 8 per cent of Star.

Given the explosive revelations and allegations made during the day one of the inquiry it is very difficult to imagine how the current board of Star will be able to mend its relationship with the regulator and navigate the path to restore its licence.

It has deteriorated into a grubby battle.

On one side of the boxing ring are the recently departed chief executive Robbie Cooke and the Star board. On the other is the regulator, the NSW Independent Casino Commission (NICC), headed by Philip Crawford, alongside the manager it had installed to oversee the rehabilitation of the casinos, Nick Weeks.

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The inquiry heard Cooke and the chairman, David Foster, hatched a plot to engage shareholders in a class action against Weeks and the casino commission. This speaks volumes to the toxicity of the relationship.

Bizarrely, this is the board and management team that had been installed into Star to clean the place up after a 2022 regulatory inquiry by Bell found Star was unfit to hold a licence in NSW – describing it as a “case study of unethical conduct and cultural failure”.