SkyCity Auckland Casino to Shut Down for Five Days
This five-day closure is expected to reduce SkyCity’s underlying earnings by about $5 million.
SkyCity Auckland agrees to close for five days following breaches of host responsibility requirements.
LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE:The company anticipates its group underlying earnings for the 2025 financial year to be between $245 million and $265 million. SkyCity has agreed to shut down its Auckland casino for five days after admitting to breaches of host responsibility requirements. The agreement with New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs will see the gambling area at SkyCity Auckland closed for five consecutive days in 2024, though specific dates have not been set.
Related: SkyCity to Sell Its GIG Interest to Pay Down Debt
Withdrawal of Application to Suspend License
The agreement is contingent upon Internal Affairs withdrawing its application to temporarily suspend SkyCity’s casino operator’s license. The department has requested the Gambling Commission to withdraw the suspension application initially lodged in September 2023 for a ten-day period following a complaint from a former customer who gambled at the Auckland casino from 2017 to early 2021.
Internal Affairs alleged that the casino failed to comply with host responsibility rules regarding continuous play by the customer. SkyCity admitted that it did not meet the requirements in the SkyCity Auckland Host Responsibility Programme (HRP) and therefore breached the license.
SkyCity has also acknowledged that it failed to exercise the level of vigilance required by the HRP to use staff observation and intervention independently and alongside that technology to identify those incidents of continuous play by the customer and then act appropriately - such vigilance being especially relevant for customers like the complainant whose problematic behaviour was silent or hidden.
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Operator Apologies for Failings
SkyCity’s New Zealand Chief Operating Officer, Callum Mallett, issued an apology for the failings and acknowledged that the company is rightfully being held accountable. He insisted that SkyCity places great importance on host responsibility and their commitment to protecting customers from gambling harm, and explained that one of the company’s systems failed to alert them to continuous play by a particular customer, causing harm to that individual.
Julian Cook, SkyCity’s Board Chair, said that while the agreement resolves the matter, there is still considerable work needed to improve their risk systems including efforts to tackle financial crime and problem gambling.
Internal Affairs praised SkyCity’s prompt actions to improve their systems for detecting potential problem gambling indicators. The department noted that the changes SkyCity has made, including the implementation of facial recognition technology and the planned introduction of card-based play, are encouraging and that the company has publicly committed to continue enhancing its performance in this area.
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