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Star Entertainment may have spent the past four or so years trying to shake off its “embattled” status, paying hundreds of millions of dollars in fines for past misconduct.
But that hasn’t stopped the company’s board from finding a little extra cash for a few of the firm’s top executives.
In the 2026 financial year, Star made one-off cash “recognition awards” of $90,000 for Star Gold Coast’s interim chief executive Jennifer Cronin, as well as Star Sydney chief John Koster, and Charles Diao, who is the casino operator’s chief financial officer and – wait for it! – interim chief risk officer. Koster got an extra $213,796 to move to Australia from the United States.
The cash bonuses were outlined in small print notes accompanying details of Star’s executive remuneration in the company’s annual report released to investors on Monday, the same day the company reported a $307 million loss for 2026. Monday was, of course, the same day this masthead revealed the group’s pokies billionaire chief executive Bruce Mathieson jnr and his colleagues whingeing about the risk and compliance measures forced onto the group.
“We get these fines, which I think are just disproportionate to what is happening, and … all we’re doing is existing to pay a fine,” Mathieson jnr said, according to a leaked recording reported by this masthead on Monday.
“We keep on restricting ourselves tighter and tighter. We’re coming to a pretty critical time with obviously licences and all that sort of stuff, but it should be quite obvious to everyone that unless we can breathe … every time we get up to breathe, we cop another hit.”
Mathieson jnr made $522,987 in total remuneration for the 2026 financial year, according to the annual report. Koster’s bonus brought his total remuneration to $662,855, while Cronin’s total remuneration was $710,485, including the extra lick of cash outlined in the accompanying notes.
While Mathieson jnr, Koster and Cronin were not in these executive roles at the relevant time, this is the company that lost its licence to operate its Star Sydney casino in October 2022, following a NSW government inquiry that heard evidence about the company’s anti-money-laundering failures. This occurred before Mathieson jnr, Koster, Cronin and Diao joined the company.
At the weekend, a joint investigation by this masthead and The Australian Financial Review revealed, among other things, allegations from eight Star insiders of an erosion of governance standards under Mathieson jnr’s leadership of the company.
Not that you would realise any of this by looking at the pay packages offered to the company’s top executives.
Sans V’landys
Every year, those from across NSW racing come together for the industry’s night of nights, the Australian Racehorse of the Year Awards. It’s not something we’re usually gagging for. But word of the notable absentees from last week’s get-together at Royal Randwick did pique our interest.
NSW Racing Minister David Harris was one of them. Earlier in the week, Harris faced calls from some of the industry’s biggest investors, including Gai Waterhouse, to release the so-called “Hazzard Review”. That was reportedly handed to Harris by former NSW Liberal minister Brad Hazzard after a year reviewing the legislation responsible for the sport’s peak body, Racing NSW.
We’re told Harris had a medical operation the previous week, and therefore wasn’t up for racing’s big night.
The other big name absentee was none other than rugby league’s very own Sun King, Peter V’landys. The rugby league boss is on long service leave from Racing NSW after taking on the role of interim chief executive of the NRL, a move that those in sporting circles widely expect to be a precursor to becoming the game’s all-powerful executive chairman.
But it’s probably just as well, because we hear Vicky Leonard, managing director of The Thoroughbred Report, was there. This is the same Leonard who V’landys launched legal action against this year. How awkward that would’ve been.
V’landys left his duties as Racing NSW chief to the sporting body’s chief operating officer, Graeme Hinton, after taking over former NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo’s role in July, for what at the time was expected to be a four-month period. Hinton, meanwhile, is expected to hold the top racing job for the same period.
Spotted: Bob Carr, out to lunch
Every so often we’re alerted to a sighting of former NSW premier and foreign minister Bob Carr walking the streets of Sydney’s CBD. On Monday, Carr was seen out for lunch at Grill Americano eating with two friends, who we’ve sadly been unable to identify.
The last time the former premier surfaced in this column was in March for the launch of his book Bring Back Yesterday at NSW Parliament, just up the road. No sign of the Labor Old Boys on Monday, though.
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John Buckley is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.From our partners
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