(In 2nd paragraph, corrects to delete year-ago figure for normalised profit. Company provided only the percentage change.)
Feb 21 (Reuters) - Australia's second-largest casino operator Star Entertainment Group SGR.AX posted a 2.4 percent drop in first-half profit after a fall in demand from high-stakes gamblers.
Normalised profit after tax, which is adjusted to remove win rate volatility and exclude significant items, came in at A$123.8 million ($88.65 million) for the six months ended Dec. 31.
The company declared an interim dividend of 10.5 cents per share, up from the 7.5 cents declared a year earlier.
($1 = 1.3965 Australian dollars)