Now emails published today in the Australian newspaper purport to show that Mr Grimshaw forwarded messages from the Premier about other issues, to his girlfriend.

Mr O'Farrell says Mr Grimshaw will be investigated.

"I asked this morning my director-general to investigate whether there had been any breaches of the code of conduct by ministerial staff," he said.

"I informed Mr Grimshaw of my decision and he agreed to stand down without pay subject to that inquiry."

Mr O'Farrell says Mr Grimshaw will not return to work until the completion of separate independent inquiry into the casino.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-05/premier27s-staffer-stands-down-amid-casino-affair/3869128

RELATIONS between the NSW government and the Star casino appear to have completely broken down after the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, accused it in Parliament of running a ''smear campaign'' to ''blacken the name of a sexual harassment victim''.

Amid growing pressure for a public inquiry into the casino, Mr O'Farrell implied the casino was responsible for the leaks of email and text messages of a former employee who was sacked after making a sexual harassment complaint against its former managing director Sid Vaikunta.

The woman, a former human resources manager, is the partner of Mr O'Farrell's director of communications, Peter Grimshaw, who has been stood down. The leaks have sought to portray Mr Grimshaw and his partner as having a vendetta against the casino.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/premier-accuses-star-of-smear-campaign-against-exemployee-20120306-1uihf.html#ixzz1oN4f81qt

Methink that the Premier is trying to tarnish Star Casino in order to promote Crown Casino.... Well not so overt as this but the result would make James smell of roses. I am cynical to a fault...

Hi Gus,

I must agree with your thesis .... young James must be rubbing his palms together with glee!!

Putting aside his rather clumsy attempt to smooth the way for the Packer interests, O'Farrell's behaviour in using parliament to make accusations without proof, as well as potentially compromising an investigation into, as yet, unproven allegations, is not only an abuse of priviliege but it's also tantamount to an abuse of power.

By the way, can you think of a reason why you wouldn't be cynical .... I can't.

Cheers,

John.

When the gaming authority last month announced an inquiry into the Star's decision to sack its managing director, Sid Vaikunta, relations between the casino and the government were tense.

Just three weeks later they have degenerated into an ugly drawn-out street fight.

Premier Barry O'Farrrell has accused the casino of leaking emails to "blacken the name of a victim of sexual harassment" and the chairman of casino owner Echo Entertainment, John Story, has hit back - complaining that "somebody" unnamed is "out there making mischief"' and trashing the Star's reputation in the media.

In that toxic environment, plans by the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) to conduct in secret its inquiry into what is going on at the casino are ludicrous.

When he announced his inquiry, ILGA's chairman Chris Sidoti, said it should be held behind closed doors to protect the privacy of the woman or women allegedly victims of sexual harassment by Vaikunta.

That argument was flimsy at the time and has evaporated altogether now as one alleged victim of the harassment has already been identified as the partner of O'Farrell's communications director, Peter Grimshaw, who has had her emails and text messages to her lover published in national newspapers.

For the findings of the inquiry to have any credibility, the evidence from witnesses must be tested in public. It's a fundamental principle of justice that for justice to be done it needs to be seen to be done. That's why courts and royal commissions and ICAC hearings are held in public.

Only when there are public hearings can the public have faith that the regulators have done their job as the law requires.

That argument is even more compelling with a business so involving such massive amounts of money.

If ICAC can drag council workers through public inquiries for taking mobile phones as kickbacks, then the gaming authority should do the same with casino executives accused by the Premier of behaviour that is improper or worse.

Where there are grounds for names to be suppressed to protect the privacy of individuals, the authority can simply issue a non-publication order and hear specific evidence in private.

The deadline for anyone to provide evidence of what's been going on at the casino to Gail Furness, SC, the lawyer the ILGA's board has appointed to head the inquiry is at 5pm tomorrow.

On the current timetable, Furness will read submissions, interview witnesses, and then decide with Sidoti whether to have public hearings.

Should they fail to do so, the authority and its inquiry findings will lack the credibility essential to end the war between the casino and the NSW government.

Star Inquiry Must Be Public

New South Wales Premier Barry O'Farrell is continuing to stand by his Gaming Minister, despite mounting pressure to sack him over his dealings with Sydney's Star casino.

The controversy centres on allegations of sexual harassment at the casino, and the sacking of a female employee who complained.

A series of leaked emails and text messages are continuing to cause problems for the Premier.

One text message from Gaming Minister George Souris shows he agreed to keep details of the harassment claim at the casino from the Premier.

A senior staff member in Mr O'Farrell's office, who has a personal relationship with the woman who complained, has been stood aside while the matter is investigated.

But Mr O'Farrell has rejected calls to sack Mr Souris over the matter.

"I'm not concerned that either my communications director or my minister was seeking to protect a woman who was the victim of sexual harassment," he said.

The Opposition attempted to use the "call to papers" order in State Parliament's Upper House today to force the release of all Star casino documents.

The move needed the support of the minor parties, but Labor's motion failed.

Opposition Leader John Robertson had previously pressured Government MPs to support the motion.

"If Barry O'Farrell's MPs don't support this vote, it is clear they have got something to hide," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-07/o27farrell-stands-by-souris-over-star-casino/3874450

A series of explosive text messages suggest New South Wales Premier Barry O'Farrell wanted to "smash" Sydney's Star casino.

The bombshell was dropped near the end of today's hearing held by the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority, which is examining allegations of misconduct at the casino.

The investigation is focused on the circumstances surrounding the sacking of Sid Vaikunta over sexual harassment claims.

The claims were made by two casino staffers, one of whom is the girlfriend of Mr O'Farrell's suspended media chief Peter Grimshaw, who had also worked at Star.

Mr Vaikunta denied the allegations and the casino retaliated by going into open warfare with the State Government.

The casino operators accused Mr Grimshaw of using his position to try and trash Star's reputation, a claim they backed up by leaking phone texts between Mr Grimshaw and his girlfriend to the media.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-02/ofarrell-implicated-in-campaign-against-star/3928176

see toon at top and stories below... especially http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/17463#comment-20042

The New South Wales Opposition has accused Premier Barry O'Farrell of misleading Parliament over comments he made about Sydney's Star casino.

Mr O'Farrell's suspended communications director Peter Grimshaw is due back in the witness box this morning at an inquiry into allegations of misconduct at the casino.

The inquiry by the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority yesterday heard the casino's lawyers read out text messages they said Mr Grimshaw sent in 2010.

In one of the messages Mr Grimshaw said he told Mr O'Farrell, then opposition leader, what a "dick" the casino's then managing director Sid Vaikunta was.

The message said Mr O'Farrell might have to give the Star a "wake-up call".

The Opposition says the Premier misled Parliament yesterday when answering a question from Labor's Nathan Rees.

"Did he (Mr Grimshaw) discuss these views with your prior to 2011?" Mr Rees asked.

"No," replied Mr O'Farrell.

Opposition Leader John Robertson says yesterday's evidence appears to indicate otherwise.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-03/opposition-accuses-o27farrell-of-misleading-over-star-affair/3929048?WT.svl=news2

It's the O'Barrell Gamble or the O'Farrel Fumble...

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell's communications director Peter Grimshaw has resigned, just hours after appearing at an inquiry into Sydney's Star casino.

Mr Grimshaw and his partner have been accused of mounting a secret campaign against The Star and its former boss Sid Vaikunta, who was sacked in February.

Yesterday he dragged Mr O'Farrell into the messy scandal, after a series of 2010 texts discussing Mr O'Farrell's desire to "smash" the casino were read out at an inquiry held by the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority.

Answering questions in parliament today, Mr O'Farrell said he had no recollection of conversations in which he was alleged to have told Mr Grimshaw in 2010 that The Star needed "a wake up call".

However, he revealed Mr Grimshaw had tendered his resignation on Tuesday afternoon - just after he finished giving evidence to the ILGA inquiry.

"Shortly before question time today I had a telephone conversation with Peter Grimshaw in which he offered his resignation - a resignation I accepted with regret," Mr O'Farrell said.

The state opposition has accused the premier of colluding with Mr Grimshaw in his campaign against the casino in the wake of texts sent in 2010 and produced by lawyers for The Star during Mr Grimshaw's evidence.

The first text, sent from Mr Grimshaw to his partner on August 21, said: ''I just told Barry what a dick Sid is. He said we might all have to give Star a wake up call when I leave.'

'The other two, on November 8, read: ''Barry just texted me. He is at the Leonard Cohen concert.

''Not even sure why he texted. Just asked me if I was out yet. I think they are going to smash Star.''

Mr O'Farrell, who was still opposition leader at the time of the texts, told question time: ''I don't recall any conversation I had with Grimshaw about those matters''.

''I stand by my record in government,'' he said.

''Because when we put our mind to it we can smash people.

"And yet ... in the more than 12 months we have been in office we have not taken a single adverse decision about The Star casino.

''In fact the only decision about The Star casino was one undertaken by the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority that resulted in its licence being renewed.

''So much for the conspiracies.''

'Smash' Star: Grimshaw resigns after casino evidence

Responsible gambling is so important a concept that it has an annual celebration, as well as its own flowerbed. Responsible Gambling Awareness Week this year runs from May 14-20.

The sponsors and partners for RGAW in Victoria include Crown Casino, ALH (the pokies-operating arm of Woolworth's), Racing Victoria, Clubs Victoria, the Hotels Association, local governments, and others.

State governments presumably believe that the 'gamble responsibly' message is evidence of their concern about gambling problems, and will assist people who gamble to do so in a 'responsible' manner.

This year's Victorian campaign focuses on young people, pointing out that with technological advances it's easier than ever to gamble, and that three out of four people in the state gamble.

The key messages are: don't lose control, set your limit, and keep things in balance.

Fair enough. Unfortunately, there is no evidence to support the proposition that slogans, as a way of influencing individual behaviour, are effective, unless they're complemented by much more active strategies.

This is particularly so when the approach taken in most of the RGAW material appears to suggest that gambling is something most people do, and is thus quite normal, and that it has the characteristics of a force of nature. That is, gambling has always been with us and can't be avoided.

In reality, gambling in its present forms has been around in most Australian states only since the early 1990s, when a wave of deregulation allowed pokies venues in most suburbs and towns, and casino licences were handed out. Similarly, sports betting as an online phenomenon dates only from the mid-2000s.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4014800.html?WT.svl=theDrum

THE NSW Liberal Party has discovered more than $200,000 worth of donations received during the last financial year that it had not previously revealed to the Australian Electoral Commission.

The donations, only some of which appear to have been declared to the separate NSW Electoral Funding Authority, include $17,600 from the Sydney Airport Corporation and an additional $8200 (total donation of $30,000) from Australian Water Holdings, a private water infrastructure company that runs Australian Water.

The NSW Liberal Party also declared $17,900 in previously undisclosed donations from the Independent Retailers of NSW, $35,000 from a company called Sixmilebridge and two donations totalling $76,000 from KPMG.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/liberals-uncover-200000-donations-20120523-1z5lc.html#ixzz1vjbelCC2

GREENS senator Lee Rhiannon has apologised after it emerged she helped to ghost-write an opinion article attacking her own party for accepting a $1.7 million donation from entrepreneur Graeme Wood.The article, published on the website Crikey in February, accused the Greens of being ''in the same league as the old parties'' over its acceptance of the donation from the wotif.com founder - an Australian record for a single political contribution.The piece was published under the name of Norman Thompson, a long-time friend of Senator Rhiannon. Together, Senator Rhiannon and Dr Thompson founded the Democracy4Sale project, which investigates donations to political parties
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/green-sorry-for-attacking-own-party-20120523-1z5k6.html#ixzz1vjeS9xAs.

The authority said handing out free bets did not break the law but the method of luring novice punters to play blackjack might.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/casinos-lure-for-gamblers-20120616-20gpz.html#ixzz1y200SeER

Casino Mogul’s Frontman in China Is Focus of Inquiries By MICHAEL LUO, NEIL GOUGH and EDWARD WONG

When Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate, needed something done in China, he often turned to his company’s “chief Beijing representative,” a mysterious businessman named Yang Saixin.

Mr. Yang arranged meetings for Mr. Adelson with senior Chinese officials, acted as a frontman on several ambitious projects for Mr. Adelson’s company, the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, and intervened on the Sands’s behalf with Chinese regulators. Mr. Yang even had his daughter take Mr. Adelson’s wife, Miriam, shopping when she was in Beijing.

“Adelson and I had a good relationship,” Mr. Yang said in a recent interview in Hong Kong. “He should thank me.”

Mr. Yang joined the Sands in 2007 as the company worked to protect its interests in Macau, where its gambling revenues were mushrooming, and pressed ahead with plans for a resort in mainland China. Boasting of ties to the People’s Liberation Army and China’s state security apparatus, Mr. Yang was hired for his guanxi, that mixture of relationships and favors that is critical to opening doors in China, according to former executives.

But today, Mr. Yang, along with tens of millions of dollars in payments the Sands made through him in China, is a focus of a wide-ranging federal investigation into potential bribery of foreign officials and other matters in China and Macau, according to people with knowledge of the inquiries.

The investigations are unfolding as Mr. Adelson has become an increasing presence in this year’s presidential election, contributing at least $35 million to Republican groups. On Tuesday, Mitt Romney’s running mate, Representative Paul D. Ryan, is to appear at a fund-raiser at the Sands’s Venetian casino in Las Vegas; Mr. Adelson is likely to attend, according to a person close to him.

In the political arena, Mr. Adelson is perhaps best known as a hawkish defender of Israel. But whatever the outcome of the inquiries involving his businesses in China, an examination of those activities suggests a keen interest in Washington’s China policy and highlights the degree to which politics and profits are often intertwined for Mr. Adelson.

The Sands has faced a conundrum in China as a casino company whose fortunes are heavily dependent on its operations in a country where gambling is illegal, except in Macau. The company relies on the good will of Chinese officials, who mete out approvals and have the power to curtail the flow of mainland visitors. As a result, Mr. Adelson has sought to use financial clout and connections to exert political influence at the highest levels of government.

On the front lines of those efforts was Mr. Yang, who was paid a $30,000-a-month retainer by the company before he was fired in 2009, he said. At times, he acted as Mr. Adelson’s personal guide to the Chinese establishment. Among the dignitaries he took Mr. Adelson to see was Wan Jifei, a leading international trade official whose father had been vice premier. That led to a lunch with other trade officials at the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square.

The Sands later hired Mr. Wan’s daughter, Bao Bao, a socialite and jewelry designer, to do public relations. And the trade agency Mr. Wan ran became a partner in the Sands’s biggest venture, the Adelson Center for U.S.-China Enterprise.

Mr. Yang denies resorting to bribery and says he actually lost money on his dealings with the Sands.  

read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/14/us/politics/sheldon-adelsons-dealings-in-china-are-under-investigation.html?_r=1&hp&pagewanted=print     

Melbourne's Crown Casino has called in the police and Victoria's gaming regulator to investigate a betting scam which is believed to have netted a high-rolling cards player $32 million.

A staff member who looks after VIP gamblers has been sacked over the scam and a gambler has been banned from the premises.

The Herald Sun has reported the scam netted the high roller $32 million, but Crown is refusing to confirm that figure.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-15/police-called-in-over-crown-casino-betting-scam/4574556

----------------------------

Meanwhile, the other scam arranged in broad daylight between Bazza O'Feral and James Packer, is giving about $150 million worth of PUBLIC land onto James lap — for a pepper corn and a red carpet... 

caption: "Dear lady, thank you for bringing your cash, efpos, visa, master card... and thank you again for having flushed your gambler's anonymous card down the toilet..."