The Star not ready for unsupervised casino licence, chair says

“With the benefit of hindsight, they were heat-of-the-moment comments. As I’ve reflected on them, I would have been better served not to respond in the heat of the moment,” he said.

The inquiry has so far heard from a number of senior and former executives who allege that Cooke, who quit last month, was not transparent with the broader executive team about the group’s debt exposure and earnings position.

The Star has been accused of falsifying mandatory welfare checks on poker machine players, failing to prevent a loss of some $3.2 million from a faulty gaming machine over a six-week period, and plotting to misconstrue that loss in the company’s half-yearly results.

Foster also suggested in another text to Cooke that they orchestrate a class action against the company’s special manager, Nick Weeks, and the NICC, and seek legal advice from King and Wood Mallesons.

Foster told the inquiry that the class action idea came from investors who wanted to know if they “could or should do anything” about the company’s battered share price. Foster refused to name any of the investors or financial stakeholders but repeated that it was not his suggestion.

He agreed with special counsel Caspar Conde, who said it was a “bizarre” idea.

“Did you not have better things to be doing in February 2024 than to be contriving of a way to sue the manager and or the NICC?” Conde asked.

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Foster also conceded that he texted Cooke last April “in the heat of the moment” about “abolishing” the regulator. “Perhaps a different forum for that”, Cooke is alleged to have replied.

Foster said his messages related to wanting to establish a level playing field with pubs and clubs, which hold 98 per cent of the state’s poker machines but are not required to transition to mandatory carded play in the same timeframe.

He told the inquiry his messages referred to wanting to broaden the regulator’s scope to include pubs and clubs and not abolish it entirely.

Foster said another message to Cooke about “getting rid of Weeks” was also out of context and related to simplifying Weeks’ role to focus squarely on NSW and not entirely ousting him.

He said it was the board’s decision to instigate Cooke’s departure, contradicting an exit statement Cooke sent to the company’s 8000 employees saying he had quit at the end of last month. The board was not comfortable with this message, Foster said, which also referred to the breakdown in the relationship between the NSW regulator and the company.

Foster said he expressed as much at the time but did not stop Cooke from publishing it.

“But at that stage, Mr Cook was an employee. So couldn’t you have given him direction?” Conde asked.

“Possibly,” Foster replied.

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