To be fair to Cooke, his dealings with sleepy gambling regulators in previous roles would have offered zero preparation for the hothouse environment he faced at The Star, or the mammoth task needed to ensure the appalling culture of previous management was torn out at the roots.

Then there was the task of engineering a cultural revolution while trying to keep the highly regulated, and scrutinised, business afloat amid weakening financial circumstances.

Even before Cooke fronted the inquiry on Wednesday, other executives and board members had well laid out the chaos, which suggests Cooke had failed to make headway with either challenge.

As the management’s reportedly combative and paranoid attitude to the NSW Independent Casino Commission (NICC) put an end to the casino operator’s hope of regaining the regulator’s trust. The most startling revelation from the inquiry is the suggestion that Cooke couldn’t even keep faith with his senior executives.

Cooke was adamant on Wednesday that a meeting in September last year with The Star’s chief legal officer, Betty Ivanoff, did not include Ivanoff tendering her letter of resignation, despite the inquiry receiving evidence to the contrary.

He was also at odds with the inquiry over the testimony of former chief financial officer Christina Katsibouba about her concerns over financial matters. And Cooke also disagreed over whether he had resigned of his own volition last month, or if the board had instructed him to go.

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But all of that is small beer compared to an incident in January this year, which ultimately cost Cooke his job.

A meeting had been set up by the casino’s NICC-appointed special manager, Nicholas Weeks, that triggered suspicions that The Star was about to be hit by a fresh regulatory assault. At a time when the public messaging from The Star was one of co-operation with the regulator, frenzied texts between Cooke and his chairman David Foster spoke of “preparing for war” with the NICC.

For counsel assisting the inquiry, it was clear proof of the concerns last month – which triggered the second inquiry – that The Star may still be unfit to retain its casino licence.

To Cooke, these were just exchanges in the heat of the moment and reflected his view that the group was “under some form of attack.”

But he did make one concession about the sorry saga.

“I think I overreacted, yes.”

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