The Star Entertainment to slash staff as gamblers stop spending

Australian casino operator The Star Entertainment Group (SGR) plans to slash its workforce in order to keep the lights on until its international VIP and domestic gamblers boost their spending.

On Monday, SGR released a trading update covering the year through June 8, during which domestic revenue managed to rise only 0.3% from the same period last year. The international VIP business fared much worse, with turnover falling 31% year-on-year.

The VIP turnover decline is actually slightly better than the 33% decline reported in the first half of the fiscal year, but win rate came in below the 1.35% theoretical average. Worse, domestic revenue had risen 6.4% in H1 and SGR tried to point out that overall fiscal 2019 domestic revenue is up 3.1% but investors weren’t exactly reassured.

As a result, SGR downgraded its FY19 earnings forecast to a range of AU$550-560m, compared with AU$568m in the 12 months ending June 30, 2018. The news sent SGR’s stock into a tailspin, falling 16% on Tuesday to a four-year low, erasing over $600m in market valuation in the process.