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Mr Costello said it was more in the public interest to let the facility be sold off for "a shopping centre" than to prop up a failing casino with taxpayers' money. Mr Costello said governments in Australia had made the mistake of backing in "massive downtown casinos" like Queen's Wharf, which relied on high rollers that are no longer coming. Alliance for Gambling Reform chief advocate Tim Costello said this "high roller" market had collapsed after a series of inquiries "lifted the veil on the dirty little secret about casinos … their business model depends on dirty money". Another source said Star's minimum fee was $40 million a year for 50 years, a "staggering amount of money for a second-tier city like Brisbane" but based on the idea the casino would lure wealthy Chinese gamblers. The latest Chinese offer could involve CTF and FEC taking over almost $740 million in debt from Star and paying hundreds of millions to complete the Brisbane casino development.

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