Bally’s Veteran Ameet Patel Named Dual CEO of The Star Brisbane and Gold Coast

Key Points

• Ameet Patel, former President of Bally’s Chicago and SVP of Regional Operations at Penn National, has been appointed dual CEO of The Star Brisbane and The Star Gold Coast, subject to regulatory approval.
• Patel joins a growing list of former Bally’s executives placed into Star’s senior roles since Bally’s A$300 million rescue investment in late 2025 handed the two shareholders a combined 61% controlling stake.
• Star remains under serious financial strain, with its share price sitting near an all-time low and a A$540 million debt refinancing deal only just closed in May 2026.

The Star Entertainment Group has named Ameet Patel as dual Chief Executive Officer of The Star Brisbane and The Star Gold Coast, pending regulatory approval. He spent years running casino operations for Bally’s Corporation across the United States. His move to Queensland is the latest step in what is shaping up to be the most calculated executive rebuild Australian casino history has seen in a long time.

Star made the announcement on LinkedIn, describing Patel as “a senior executive with extensive experience in gaming, hospitality, and operations leadership across multiple regions,” who “specialises in strategic planning, process redesign, financial analysis, talent development, and operational efficiencies.”

A Track Record Forged Across Regulated Markets

Before Star, Patel ran Bally’s Chicago as its President and held the SVP of Regional Operations title at Penn National, a job that handed him oversight of several US markets at once. Sun International was also on his resume. Star’s announcement confirmed he has handled every layer of group gaming operations across multiple US markets, from setting strategy and holding standards to managing daily performance, all running at the same time.

At Star, he replaces Daniel Finch at The Star Brisbane and steps in for Jennifer Cronin, who had been holding the Gold Coast position on an interim basis after the property’s last two permanent CEOs walked out within months of taking the seat. Group CEO and Managing Director Bruce Mathieson Jr said: “We look forward to working with Ameet as we continue to strengthen our leadership capability across The Star.”

Gold Coast Has Been the Harder Chair to Hold

Between the two properties, The Star Gold Coast has been the one nobody seems to want to stay in. Mark Mackay was appointed as permanent CEO and lasted 95 days. Before him, Jessica Mellor had also resigned, six months into the job. Cronin held it on an interim basis while the search dragged on. That search is over now, with Patel absorbing both Queensland properties into a single role.

The dual structure matters. Running two integrated resorts under one person is not how these things are normally done, but Star is not operating in normal conditions. Queensland needs someone in charge who actually knows what they are doing, and it needs that now. Putting both properties under one executive with a real multi-site history cuts through the mess that has plagued Gold Coast leadership for close to a year.

Bally’s Is Putting Its Own People in Every Room That Matters

Patel’s appointment reads differently once you look at the full picture. Since Bally’s Corporation and the Mathieson family’s Investment Holdings turned a A$300 million rescue package into equity in late November 2025, the whole structure of Star has shifted. That deal handed Bally’s roughly 38% of Star’s issued capital and Investment Holdings 23%, giving the two partners combined control of 61% of the company.

Bally’s President George Papanier joined Star’s board as a director. Bally’s chairman Soo Kim took over as Star’s company chair, replacing Anne Ward in December 2025.

Then the appointments started. In March 2026, John Koster, a former Bally’s vice president, was named CEO of The Star Sydney. Charlie Diao, another Bally’s alumnus, was appointed group CFO that same month, with a brief to bring financial order back to the business. Now Patel takes Queensland. The CEO seats in Sydney, Brisbane, and Gold Coast, together with the group CFO role, are all occupied by people who came from Bally’s. That is not a coincidence. It is a strategy.

Kim has been blunt about what he found when Bally’s walked in. He called it “the greatest bit of mismanagement I’ve ever seen,” then told NEXT.io in the same breath that it was “generational in terms of opportunity.” Two views that seem to pull in opposite directions, but together they explain the logic. Bally’s is not here to observe. It is filling every seat that matters with people it already knows.

Star Is Selling While It Rebuilds

New executives are arriving while assets are going in the other direction. Star has agreed to sell its 50% stake in The Star Brisbane to Hong Kong partners Chow Tai Fook and Far East Consortium, though it will keep running the casino under a management arrangement. Patel will be in charge of a property that Star no longer fully owns. That is a layer of complexity baked into his brief before he has even started.

In May 2026, Star closed a binding credit facility with Whitehawk Capital Partners to refinance its A$540 million in outstanding debt. The previous management team negotiated the deal. The current one has to deliver on it.

The Regulatory Heat Has Not Let Up

None of this is playing out on steady ground. On 1 June 2026, the New South Wales Independent Casino Commission handed The Star Sydney a A$10 million fine and ordered a further A$5 million to be put aside to address failings in the casino’s financial crime risk management processes.

NICC chief commissioner Philip Crawford said he had seen “considerable progress” at Star under its new leadership, and acknowledged that many of the rule breaches predated the most recent system upgrades. It is a meaningful concession from a regulator that has not been generous with praise. The fine stands regardless.

Star’s share price says the rest. It closed last week at A$0.11 and has since slipped below A$0.10, sitting less than one cent above its all-time low. The market has watched the executive changes and the debt deal and the regulatory negotiations, and its view has not shifted.

Expert Analysis

Patel’s appointment settles one question: Bally’s is not running this from across the Pacific. It has placed its own people in charge of every major property and every major financial function inside Star. The industry is not asking whether Bally’s is serious about the turnaround, the appointments have answered that. What people are actually asking is whether the turnaround is achievable at all, within a timeframe that makes sense.

Star is carrying regulatory obligations across two states, refinancing debt, offloading assets, and trying to hold together properties that have burned through leader after leader at the operational level. Patel’s background in regulated US casino markets across multiple sites is exactly the kind of experience Queensland needs right now. But the Gold Coast has already shown what an appointment looks like when it does not hold. The next real test is not the name on the door. It is how long that name stays there, and whether the numbers move while it does.