Auckland Casino To Close For Five Days Due To Host Responsibility Failings

SkyCity Entertainment Group Ltd (SkyCity) has announced today it has agreed to temporarily close its SkyCity Auckland casino for five consecutive days this year after failing to meet its host responsibility obligations.

The dates of closure are not yet confirmed.

The temporary closure will impact the Auckland casino gaming areas only. The SkyCity hotels, restaurants, bars, Sky Tower, theatre, and everything outside the gaming areas will remain open. All staff will be rostered on as usual.

The five-day closure comes after the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) made an application to the New Zealand Gambling Commission to suspend SkyCity Casino Management Ltd’s New Zealand casino operator’s licence based on identified failings of the Auckland Host Responsibility Programme. The DIA has now applied to the Gambling Commission to withdraw that application, with the agreement being conditional on this approval.

SkyCity Chief Operating Officer New Zealand, Callum Mallett, says the failings are significant and the company is rightfully being held to account for them.

“We place great importance on host responsibility and take these failures very seriously. On behalf of the SkyCity Board and management team, I accept and apologise for them.

“This relates to our obligations around host responsibility – essentially, how we look after our customers to protect them from gambling harm,” says Mr Mallett.

“In this case, one of our systems failed to alert us to levels of continuous play from a particular customer. We are deeply sorry for the harm caused to this customer.”

SkyCity Chair, Julian Cook, says the SkyCity Board, executive and entire team are wholly committed to doing better, and building back trust.

“We have the plans, people and necessary investment to do this, but we know we have work to do.”

Mr Cook says SkyCity embarked on a significant risk management transformation programme in mid-2021, and the company has made demonstrable progress since then.

“It is clear that historically SkyCity’s focus, resources and investment have fallen short of what was required of the business. This is not acceptable and, as part of meeting our regulatory obligations and wider social licence to operate, we are committed to fully addressing this.

“We know commitment to change needs to come from the top, and to that end we have refreshed our Board, added specific risk expertise through governance and the executive, including the appointment of a Chief Risk Officer, and established both a Board Risk and Compliance Committee and a Board Transformation Sub-Committee.

“Across the business, we have rolled out enhanced training, systems and processes, and boosted numbers in our Risk and Host Responsibility teams.”

Mr Mallett says SkyCity’s facial recognition technology has been a big step forward for the business and its Host Responsibility Programmes, and this is now embedded across the business, including ATMs at SkyCity’s Auckland and Hamilton properties.

“We are introducing 100% carded, account-based play next year which will take our customer care to a new level. Simply put, this means no card, no play.

“Carded play will allow both us and the customer to monitor how long they’ve been playing and when they need to take a break. If they play for too long, the card will disconnect and they will not be able to continue playing.

“These technological developments are important and significant, but they will never replace our people, who play a critical role in engaging with our customers and helping protect them from gambling harm.

“We are committed to ensuring we provide safe, responsible experiences and environments, and will continue to work closely with our regulators. Most importantly, we’re committed to looking after our people, customers and communities, as they are at the heart of everything we do.”

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