SkyCity five-day closure 'extremely significant' reminder of casino's obligations

A gambler at SkyCity Casino in Auckland spent more than nine hours continuously playing the pokies without any interaction with staff.

There were 23 occasions in total when the gambler played uninterrupted for several hours.

In total the person gambled more than $1 million which had "a real impact on this person and their life", the Department of Internal Affairs said.

SkyCity will close its Auckland casino for five consecutive days after admitting to breaching the Gambling Act.

It is an unprecedented move.

The Department of Internal Affairs said the breaches of the act happened between 2017 and 2021.

SkyCity has acknowledged its failings and has formally apologised.

Under the agreement, SkyCity acknowledged "it did not meet the requirement in the SkyCity Auckland Host Responsibility Programme (HRP), and therefore the licence".

In a statement, SkyCity's New Zealand chief operating officer Callum Mallett apologised for the "significant" failings and said the company was rightfully being held to account.

"This is extremely significant," director gambling at the Department of Internal Affairs Vicki Scott told Checkpoint.

"This is unprecedented in the sense that a casino has never voluntarily closed down in recognition of breaches of host responsibility obligations before.

"The five-day closure is also the longest period close-down that's ever been either agreed to or imposed by the Gambling Commission under the Gambling Act. So this is a really significant moment today that we've reached," Scott said.

The agreement with the Department of Internal Affairs means the gambling area of SkyCity Auckland will be off-limits for five consecutive days this year - though no dates have been specified.

SkyCity said the closure will dent its underlying earnings by about $5 million.

"Casinos are under a host of obligations, which essentially require them to monitor for signs of gambling harm and to intervene when they're observed," Scott said.

"One of those important obligations is the detection and interaction with customers after periods of continuous play. In this case that's five hours or more of continuous gambling without the necessary breaks or interactions.

"In this particular case a complainant came forward in 2022 to the department and complained that he was essentially allowed to gamble for long periods of time, in excess of five hours, without any interaction or intervention by the casino.

"We investigated that complaint and found that on 23 instances the necessary system and also staff weren't alerted to the continuous play and didn't interact with the customer as required."

The longest time the complainant spent continuously at the casino's slot machines was "in excess of nine hours", Scott said.

The person spent more than $1 million at the casino, she said.

"That had a real impact on this person and their life. This is just an example of the sort of harm that can be suffered by customers when these important obligations and systems fail."

Because of the systemic nature of the issue, Scott said she believed it would not be the only case of continuous play going unchecked.

"There could well be more instances that have been missed, where the necessary interactions didn't take place. And that's one of the reasons why we've taken this breach so seriously. This is a systemic issue with potentially widespread consequences."

System to trigger alerts failed

The system that SkyCity designed to trigger alerts when a customer was continuously gambling had failed, Scott said.

"It didn't prompt staff to have the conversation that they're required to have.

"That failing was coupled with the lack of vigilance of the staff themselves in observing the long play and continuous gambling.

"Those two mechanisms together trigger the need for the casino to have a conversation with the individual. And that conversation, after five hours of continuous gambling can be really important. It can allow the gambler the chance to pause and reflect on their gambling behaviour.

"It can allow the member of staff to make an assessment about whether that person might be heading down the path of a problem gambler and whether some additional support or action might be required."

The closure of SkyCity's casino was a very significant penalty, Scott said.

"It sends a strong message both to our largest casino operator and also other casinos and others in the gambling industry that actually these harm minimisation obligations are critically important, and that we will hold licence holders to account."

The Department of Internal Affairs was working with SkyCity to make sure its compliance improved. DIA officers were in the casino every two weeks to check compliance and harm minimisation practices, Scott said.

"That includes in relation to their plans to introduce mandatory carded play by the middle of next year, which will require every customer in the casino to be playing with some sort of unique identifier or account based mechanism.

"I think SkyCity have taken this seriously... This is the first time they've closed their doors and it's a very public demonstration of the penalty as well, so I'm confident this is front of mind for SkyCity and we are working constructively with them to ensure that their practice is uplifted, but we will continue to closely monitor for any other breaches."

Casino won't say if it has repaid any of $1m

SkyCity chief operating officer New Zealand Callum Mallett told Checkpoint the casino knew it had failed the customer.

The casino had been in touch several times with the customer but he refused to say on privacy grounds whether any of the money would be repaid.

The casino had added a lot more technology including facial recognition technology to ensure banned customers did not re-enter as well as picking up visitors gambling for too long.

"What I can guarantee is that we are focused on continuous improvement ... what we can guarantee is our systems are significantly better than they were and we are focused on making sure they get better so this doesn't happen again."

The numbers of staff dedicated to looking after customers had tripled in recent times.

Teams were trained to look for "red flags" - namely signs that gamblers were spending too long at the likes of pokie machines.

Better technology and training on risk factors had been introduced, he said.

For most people gambling was a recreational activity but for some it could turn into a problem, he acknowledged.

While the days of the closure had not been decided it would be Monday to Friday, Mallett said.

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, or you're worried that one might be developing, there are agencies that help.

Help for problem gamblers:

• Gambling Helpline Services: 0800 654 655 or text 8006
• Problem Gambling Foundation: 0800 664 262 text 5819

help@pgf.nz

• Safergambling Aotearoa