IT’S 2am on a hot Sydney night and Kings Cross is quiet and deserted.

Ten minutes’ drive away, the roads are so congested with taxis it’s quicker to get out and walk the final few hundred metres to our destination.

We are whisked up the escalators, through a roped-off queue and past a man being forcibly removed by bouncers. A team of security guards checks our IDs and ushers us into a vast, glittering venue packed with thousands of people and infinite possibility.

It’s the most buzzing spot in the city, a mini-metropolis that shows it is very possible to thrive in the wake of the lockout laws. It is of course, The Star.

As anger grows over the damage to businesses and the reputation of Australia’s biggest city, the casino is raking in the profits.

Just outside the lockout zone, it’s exempt from the rules that have killed off much of the night-life in Kings Cross and the CBD. And you can bet the same problems that triggered those prohibitive laws are in clear evidence here, too.

Intoxicated revellers brush shoulders with sports fans heading for the 24-hour bar and high-stakes gamblers who head to a special room reserved for those betting $10,000-plus per hand.

High-rollers will bet half a million on baccarat in one go, barely reacting if they lose, in contrast to the groups of mates getting excited over a $20 roulette bet.

Crowds of smokers on the expansive terraces clutch bottles of water or a beer from the outdoor bar as they languidly feed cash into the pokies. Bedraggled men in shirts and chinos knock back plastic glasses of anything from beer to spirits to red wine at the tables inside. Glass is only permitted in function room Cherry Bar.

Around a hundred security guards rove the vast gaming floor looking to spot any trouble, with many more hovering just behind the scenes.

Between 12am and 3am, when the city centre’s other bars and clubs lock their doors and stop serving drinks, is the busiest time here at The Star.

Metres from the packed gaming tables and machines, where some sit attentive, some slightly slumped, is a line that almost snakes around the corner for the casino’s Rock Lily nightclub.

It could be any club in Sydney. Except it isn’t. Long after similar city venues have forced patrons home, these revellers party on, exempt from the laws many say have ruined Sydney’s vibrant night-life.

It is a totally different pace to the 24-hour sports bar, where hordes of people drink and watch English football on massive screens.

In the space of two hours, we see two different men shouting aggressively in the faces of their female companions, before concerned guards and onlookers try to calm the situation.

At 4am every weekend, the casino’s Marquee club closes and a wave of punters streams out, often erupting into fights at the taxi rank, according to regulars.

The week before our visit, shocking footage obtained by pop culture website Pedestrian showed a 32-year-old French man being thrown to the ground by five security guards in the early hours of Sunday morning.

He was hospitalised with his leg broken in two places and is unable to work for six weeks, all because his friend took a swig from a champagne bottle at Rock Lily, he claimed.

On a typical weekend, The Star is packed with everyone from the very young to the much older, in couples and groups of friends. Some are carrying on the night after bar hopping, clubbing or dining out. Some are tourists, many from China. Others are there purely to gamble, sometimes alone.

All roads end, it seems, at the casino.

A spokesman from The Star said the venue “delivers world’s best practice in terms of security and surveillance operations and staff training, especially in the area of RSA (responsible service of alcohol)”, with more than 2800 closed circuit television cameras and a security team in excess of 200.

The spokesman said the casino had a “greater level of oversight and regulation than any other licensed operator in the state”.

“We continue to work with NSW Police and the casino regulator to minimise all forms of anti-social behaviour and ensure The Star remains one of the safest licensed venues for local and international guests,” he said.

However, people inside the club tell stories of drinking and drug-taking — behaviour seen at many late-night venues, only these days, The Star is one of the most popular.

Anthony, a 25-year-old from Pyrmont who visits the casino about once a fortnight, told news.com.au: “I don’t really gamble, I go to drink at the bar. That’s where we go to finish our night. I reckon it’s the most violent place in the city after 12, because it’s where everyone congregates.

“There are lots of fights and unrest, usually when people are drunk and have nowhere else to go.

“It’s stupid things because they’re drunk, so intoxicated or on drugs.

“You see it in the bathrooms, you see people taking pills, lining up cocaine. On top of that, you can just see when people are on drugs.”

Is Sydney nightlife dead? News.com.au asks backpackers and Kings Cross business people the question on everyone's lips.

Anthony said he had never had problems with security, but had been rejected a few times for being drunk, and was sometimes patted down. He said most of the trouble seemed to take place around points of entry.

Olivia*, of Bondi, said she visited with a group of friends after a night using MDMA at another club. “It just seemed to be a place where people went after a night out,” the 30-year-old told news.com.au.

Her friend Jasmine*, a 29-year-old from Maroubra, added: “We tried to go to Pyrmont Bridge Hotel, but they wouldn’t let us enter as we were too intoxicated. We walked straight in to The Star. They refused to serve me a drink initially, so I just went round to the other bar as it was circular.”

But they said they were escorted out by six or seven security guards about 8am after being there for about four hours.

“Other people seemed high as well, people were just meandering around like it was the end of the night,” Jasmine said.

As we leave at 4.30am, streams of people are still arriving. One man who can barely stand, and is being held up by two friends, is refused entry. A few men are pulled out of the line to be scanned and patted down, while a group of scantily-clad clubbers wobble past guards on high heels without being searched.

‘CASINO MIKE’

NSW Premier Mike Baird has been nicknamed “Casino Mike” following the controversy over his lockout laws, under which no alcohol can be bought from stores after 10pm, entry to bars and clubs is banned after 1.30am and no drinks can be bought at venues after 3am.

When Mr Baird defended the move as reducing city violence, business owners and community members attacked The Star’s exemption from the lockout laws as “hypocritical”, saying that simply closing down an area was the wrong solution.

City of Sydney councillor Linda Scott told news.com.au: “I note that several senior Liberal Party figures, including the former State Party President, have recently been appointed to the payroll of the Star City Casino. If lockout laws are to stay, it is totally inappropriate for gambling venues like Star City, with close links to the NSW Liberal Party, to continue to be given special exceptions from the laws.”

But the laws came in for a reason, following an outpouring of grief and anger over tragedies caused by alcohol-related violence in the city, including the death of 18-year-old Thomas Kelly, killed in an unprovoked attack in Kings Cross.

Mr Baird says the figures show the new laws have worked, and indeed there has been a significant drop in violence in the city centre since the rules were introduced in February 2014. But others say the laws have simply shifted the problem.

THE STATS

There are various possible interpretations of the statistics for violence in Sydney since the laws came in. Here’s what the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOSCAR) has to say:

• In the two years to last September, the rate of alcohol-related assaults fell by 34 per cent in Darlinghurst and 34.7 per cent in Potts Point, around the once popular party district of Kings Cross.

• In the same period, the rate of alcohol-related assaults in Pyrmont, where The Star is based along with other popular 24-hour venues including the Pyrmont Bridge Hotel, rose by 30 per cent.

• There were 115 alcohol-related assaults in Pyrmont this year compared to 69 in the year to September 2013; 101 in Darlinghurst compared to 172; and 139 in Potts Point compared to 317.

• There was no significant change in the rate of alcohol-related assaults in other suburbs just outside the lockout zone, including Newtown, Surry Hills, Double Bay, Paddington, Bondi Junction and Bondi Beach.

• The rate of alcohol-related assaults dropped by 13 per cent for NSW as a whole, to 144.3 per 100,000 people.

• In Pyrmont, it is more than six times that at 890.8 per 100,000 people, up from 534.5 for the year to September 2013. In Darlinghurst, it is 898.9, down from 1530.8 in September 2013. In Potts Point it is 1861, down from 4344.2 in September 2013.

GAMING CLUBS DEFY THE ODDS

A BOSCAR review of the licensing reforms said there were 6.3 assaults per month on average at The Star between February and September 2014, almost double the 3.5 average in the same period at the venue the previous year.

That would equate to 75 per year, more than three times the number recorded for 2014 at The Ivy, which the NSW Government named the state’s “most violent venue”.

The casino is exempt from the “violent venues” scheme and the “three strikes” scheme, under which licensed premises face loss of their liquor licence for repeated breaches of licensing laws.

Barangaroo will also be left out of the lockout zone and the government’s alcohol-related violence regulation, falling instead under the Casino Control Act.

A spokesman for The Star told news.com.au: “The Star is an international tourism and entertainment destination. In a 2011 report [Euromonitor International, Tourist Attractions Australia], it was recognised as one of the top four tourist attractions in Australia, surpassed in NSW only by the Sydney Opera House. The safety and comfort of guests is of paramount importance.

“The Star now receives more than 11 million visitors a year, far higher than any other licensed venue in NSW, and has a far greater level of oversight and regulation than any other licensed operator in the state.

“Our safety record is strong. Our figures for 2015 — assault numbers that have been accepted by the casino regulator and police — show an incident rate of around one per 230,000 visitors. “Additionally, we believe the BOCSAR statistics are not a true or accurate reflection of incidents at The Star, in that a number of assaults recorded against The Star occurred away from the property and involved individuals or groups who had not attended the property.

“In 2014, The Star increased its security presence to ensure entry regulations and RSA procedures were stringently followed if late night visitation increased.”

The Star spokesman also said its refusal of entry numbers had increased from 2013 to 2014 but decreased last year.

“[It suggests] the message had been received by late night partygoers that anyone intoxicated or exhibiting anti-social behaviour would not be allowed in. The numbers in 2013 and 2015 were not significantly different,” he said.

“Our business growth in recent times followed the completion in 2013 of the $870 million investment at The Star which has transformed the property into an internationally competitive integrated resort.

“We have experienced significant increases in hotel accommodation bookings and increased visitation across restaurants/fine dining, banquets, theatre and the gaming floor. Beverage sales contribute only around three per cent of the casino’s revenue. Further development works including a new hotel tower are planned.”

Star Entertainment Group revealed this week that profit had dropped by more than a third to $60.3 million in the six months to December 2015, because highrolling international VIP gamblers won more than expected. But The Star still delivered a 26 per cent increase in first-half normalised net profit to $142 million.

The Star Entertainment Group is spending up to $1 billion on redeveloping The Star casino and hotel complex in Sydney, and up to $850 million on new facilities and renovations at Jupiters Gold Coast.

The group is also building a new $3 billion casino and resort complex at Queens Wharf in Brisbane to replace the Treasury casino. The Star group chief executive Matt Bekier said the group was looking towards the long-term prospects of the tourism sector in Australia, especially given the recent free trade agreement with China.

The NSW Government last week announced a comprehensive review of the lockout laws, to be led by former High Court Justice Ian Callinan.

His recommendations are anticipated in August, and with lockout laws set to spread to Queensland, the whole of Australia will be watching.

* Names changed to protect identities.

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