The NZ casino group, SkyCity, has been found lacking in the prevention of problem gambling. All three SkyCity NZ casinos could have their licenses suspended for ten days. The shock announcement caused SkyCity’s share price to plummet. A complaint by a former Auckland SkyCity customer showed the casino was lacking in preventing long hours of continuous play.
SkyTower marks the spot where the Auckland casino’s poor management of problem gambling took place.
©Dan Freeman/Unsplash
Negative Profit a Likelihood
Just one month after posting a spectacular revenue jump, SkyCity NZ looks doomed to lose any potential profit in the financial year ahead. A suspension of ten days across all three of their casinos could lose the group NZ fifteen million dollars. Pre-COVID era, the group was losing a million dollars a day, for each day its casinos were closed during the lockdown. With a 45% revenue jump in the last financial year, daily takings are closer to NZ 1.5 million dollars in 2023.
Their stockmarket price plunged with the announcement to suspend SkyCity Entertainment Group’s licenses. Though the suspension could be months away, investors were spooked. One week later and the price has still not recovered, it is instead continuing to drop. SkyCity Entertainment Group Limited (SkyCity) has a subsidiary company that manages its New Zealand operations, SkyCity Casino Management Limited (SCML). This company is not separately listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX)
New Laws Back Up the Probe
As of September 1, 2023 New Zealand’s laws around the issue changed. The Gambling Act 2003 underwent significant changes with amendments to the Gambling (Harm Prevention and Minimisation) Regulations sections. Changes regarding monitoring of harmful gambling practises by patrons are hoped to prevent the damning complaints from needing to be made again. NZ Casinos are now officially required to observe and monitor players more carefully than before. The amendments also spelt out training requirements that would close off previous loopholes that casino operators could use to deny accountability.
Now, line by line, exact training and skill requirements for identifying and preventing problem gambling have been spelt out. At all times the casino must now have an employee on deck who can accurately perform the monitoring sweeps. Skills regarding how to approach and seek rapport with clients are required. The casinos must ensure that their casino floor workers have up-to-date training in the lead-up to even further legal amendments coming on December 1, 2023.
At the end of the year requirements for documentation of their efforts begin. A minimum of three hourly casino floor sweeps will each end in paperwork. Staff will be required to identify, amongst other things; how many people are playing, who did the sweep, what signs of gambling harm were identified, and who they talked to about any problem behaviours.
Silence Broken by Others Affected
SkyCity claimed to already enact best practices in regards to harm minimisation around problem gambling. They said, “priority [is] given to minimising the impacts associated with problem gambling as an area of primary focus”. However, interviews with multiple former patrons, by a New Zealand news agency, detailed years of over-long continuous play allowed by SkyCity management.
The law states that after five hours of continuous play by any patron, casino staff must intervene and ensure that a thirty-minute break is taken by the player. For gambling addicts, leaving their slot machine is fraught with internal impediments. Physically, the body and mind are less able to ensure healthy behaviours around gambling. This means staff intervention is highly important to ensure the health and well-being of gambling addicts on their premises.
SkyCity states that it is continuing to make improvements around its host responsibilities. They recommend many counselling services for problem gambling. At the top of their list is New Zealand’s Gambling Hotline.
