Told to get its house in order, Star Entertainment has produced comprehensive reforms to avoid having its Queensland casino licences suspended - for now.
The embattled casino operator on Friday earned a reprieve, with a potential 90-day suspension of their Brisbane and Gold Coast licences deferred for six months.
"I've made the decision to defer as opposed to rescind that license because there was much more work to do," Queensland's Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath said.
Star was told last year it had 12 months to "get their house in order" after a damning 2022 review.
The operator was found to be unfit to hold its licences at Brisbane's Treasury and The Star Gold Coast casinos, copping a $100 million fine from the Queensland government.
Star was given a year to come up with a remediation plan or both licences were at risk of being suspended for three months from December 1.
However Ms D'Ath on Friday said Star's plan featuring more than 100 initiatives, 600 milestones and a $200 million budget had been approved.
She deferred the potential 90-day suspension to May 31, 2024.
Failure to comply with the plan will make Star liable to further disciplinary action, including fines of up to $5 million.
Ms D'Ath believed Star still had plenty of work to do to convince the government that their licence suspension should be fully revoked.
"There is certainly evidence that they are changing from the top down," she said.
"But it is still very early days. This remediation plan is really the start of their work, not the end.
"There is years and years of changes including cultural change across the organisation that is needed."
A 12-month extension has also been given to special manager Nicholas Weeks, who was installed to oversee the operations overhaul at the Gold Coast and Brisbane casinos.
The review last year found Star neglected its anti-money laundering and responsible gaming duties and deliberately misled the regulator in pursuit of profit.
The state government has since cracked down on casino integrity, ushering in all 12 recommendations of the landmark 2022 review into Star's operations by Robert Gotterson KC.
Ms D'Ath said it was now up to Star to show it was genuine about reform.
"That's what I want to see...that they accept their responsibilities and they are proactively leading on this, not just doing it because they're told to," she said.
By May 31 next year Ms D'Ath will determine whether Star's Queensland licences are further deferred, enforced or rescinded based on the response.
Her decision on Friday is not directly linked to Star's new $3.6 billion Queen's Wharf casino in Brisbane which is expected to open in the first half of next year.
Separate investigations into the Queen's Wharf casino are ongoing following allegations about key shareholder Chow Tai Fook's suitability.
NSW's gaming regulator suspended Star's Sydney licence, hitting the group with a $100 million fine after another 2022 inquiry identified numerous compliance failures and found the casino had allowed money laundering to take place.
