He said there was an immediate contraction in visitors to The Star Sydney when the recent Victorian outbreak threatened to spread north. And likewise, Brisbane visitation fell in early August when reports emerged that two women returning to Queensland lied on their border declaration forms about visiting Melbourne.

“But that was two weeks ago and it has bounced back,” he said. “By and large people want to do the right thing and they want to have confidence they can have fun in safety.”

Star reported a statutory net loss of $95 million for the year to June 30, compared to a $198 million profit a year earlier, driven by 30 per cent fall in revenue and a particularly unlucky run in its VIP rooms.

Using “normalised” figures, which flattens out the impact of lucky or unlucky streaks, Star’s net profit was $121 million. That was 46 per cent lower than last year but 24 per cent ahead of the market consensus forecast.

Steve Johnson, chief investment officer of Forager Funds, which owns Star shares, said the result was slightly better than expected and he was happy to see the business turn cash flow positive, which in his view now made a capital raising unlikely. “Even in the short term that gives you a nice window here for things to fully recover,” he said. “I just don’t see them needing [a capital raising] given the recovery that you’ve seen in the business and the liquidity that the business has.”

Evans & Partners analyst Sacha Krien said the result in the months before COVID-19 hit highlighted a strong underlying trends across the business.

“While the crisis has been well managed with negligible operating costs and reduced capex while casinos are closed,” he said.

At 3pm Star’s shares were trading 3 per cent higher at $2.92. The group did not declare a final dividend.