Corporate governance experts have been coming out of the woodwork this week to add their opinions to the debate and unsurprisingly have landed in the same spot - that the position of the directors is pretty much untenable. Most of the focus has been on Star’s high-profile chairman, John O’Neill.

Publicly Star’s shareholders have kept their heads below the parapet. But those who spoke with this column, on the condition of anonymity, lined up with the corporate governance experts.

The casino industry is already tricky for funds managers with an eye to corporate social governance. Some consider themselves duped by Star which positioned itself as having the gold standard on regulation (as opposed to Crown).

They want to see board renewal and while they held Bekier in high regard as a chief executive they believed he needed to take responsibility for what took place under his watch.

If O’Neill correctly reads the tea leaves he can deliver to shareholders a timetable for an orderly transition that will allow for the near term resignation of some directors and a longer-dated departure of others.

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This will require an urgent search for replacements so the board can maintain a quorum. Over the past four years only one new director has been added to the board. In February, Star announced the chairman of Tourism Australia, Michael Issenberg, would begin his duties when he receives regulatory approval.

Approval can take up to six months.

In the wash up to Crown’s NSW Bergin inquiry, a rush of director resignations left the company’s boardroom sparsely occupied for several months.

For Star shareholders the more immediate pain is being felt thanks to the casino’s sagging share price - which has been largely due to concerns that its profitability will be crimped by the enhanced regulation that is likely to be imposed after the inquiry.

The rehabilitation of Crown has already demonstrated that the costs of running a casino that is appropriately resourced with anti-money laundering staff and proper systems is an expensive business.

Both Crown and ultimately Star will feel the revenue pressure from losing patrons brought into their casinos by junket operators. Short of a takeover, there is no trigger for Star’s share price to recover lost ground in the near term.

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