SkyCity Auckland to close casino areas for five consecutive days under settlement agreement for historical responsible gambling

New Zealand’s SkyCity Entertainment Group will close the gaming area of its flagship Auckland casino for five days later this year under a settlement agreement reached with the Secretary for Internal Affairs over a “continuous play” complaint from a former customer.

The company released details of the settlement agreement early Thursday, revealing the five-day closure at an unspecified time later this year pending consent from the Gambling Commission. The closure period will comprise five consecutive days from a Monday to a Friday, it said.

SkyCity had previously warned that it could face a closure of up to 10 days in relation to the matter after the Secretary filed an application for temporary suspension of the casino operator’s license. This application followed a complaint from a former customer who gambled at SkyCity Auckland between August 2017 to February 2021.

In Thursday morning’s update, SkyCity said it has acknowledged that it did not meet the requirement in the SkyCity Auckland Host Responsibility Programme (HRP), and therefore the licence, relating to the detection of some incidents of continuous play by the customer due to a design error in a technology system developed by SkyCity to monitor continuous play by carded customers.

It 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 incidents of continuous play by the customer and then act appropriately.

“Reaching this agreement to close the SkyCity Auckland gambling area for five days resolves this matter,” said SkyCity chair Julian Cook.

“However, there is still considerable work required and underway to improve our risk systems, including our approach to mitigating financial crime and problem gambling.

“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, we are committed to fully addressing this.”

SkyCity said it has committed to implement mandatory carded play across its New Zealand casinos by mid-2025, and at the SkyCity Adelaide casino by the end of 2025.

The company also updated its FY25 earnings guidance on the closure settlement, warning that this will negatively impact its underlying Group EBITDA to the tune of around NZ$5 million (US$3 million). Underlying Group EBITDA for FY25 is now expected to be between NZ$245 million and NZ$265 million (US$149 million and US$161 million).