SkyCity Entertainment Group has announced that it will temporarily close SkyCity Auckland casino’s gambling area from 9 September to 13 September 2024 as part of an agreement with the Secretary for Internal Affairs.
Last month, SkyCity’s subsidiary SkyCity Casino Management Limited reached an agreement with the Secretary for Internal Affairs regarding the government body’s application to temporarily suspend the firm’s casino operator’s licence.
The agreement was reached to temporarily close the gambling area of SkyCity Auckland after the casino failed to meet its host responsibility obligations in respect of a former customer.
The temporary closure will apply only to SkyCity Auckland’s gambling area and the food and beverage outlets within that area, while all other areas – hotels, Sky Tower, theatre and restaurants and bars outside the gambling area – will remain open as usual.
SkyCity added that it is “committed to ensuring that its staff are looked after during the closure period” and that all staff will be “rostered and paid as usual”.
Jason Walbridge, CEO of SkyCity, commented: “The closure is the result of failings on the part of SkyCity, which we have accepted responsibility for. We failed to meet the standards expected of us in this case.
“Over recent years, we have made significant progress to strengthen how we manage risk across the SkyCity Group, but there is still work to do. We are well underway and remain committed to prioritising the care of our customers. We understand that the privilege of holding a casino licence comes with significant responsibilities and obligations.”
The secretary initially made an application to temporarily suspend SkyCity Auckland’s licence for a period in the range of 10 days in September 2023. It followed a complaint to the Department of Internal Affairs in February 2022 by a former SkyCity Auckland casino customer who gambled between August 2017 and February 2021.
It was alleged by the secretary that SkyCity Casino Management Limited failed to comply with SkyCity Auckland Host Responsibility Programme requirements about the detection of incidents of continuous play by the customer.
SCML acknowledged through the agreement that it didn’t meet SkyCity Auckland HRP requirements and the detection of some incidents of continuous play by the customer “due to a design error in a technology system” developed by the operator to monitor carded customers’ continuous play. The operator noted that this has since been rectified.
In addition, SCML accepted that it “failed to exercise the level of vigilance required by the HRP to use staff observation and intervention independently” as well as technology to spot continuous play incidents by the customer and act appropriately – especially in cases where problematic behaviour is silent or hidden.
A formal apology has also been issued by SCML to the secretary for the failures and SkyCity Auckland’s gambling area will now be closed temporarily for five consecutive days in September.
