It apparently all started happily with a 40th birthday party back in April 2001, but it ended badly in 2004 with an arrest and imprisonment for stealing money to feed a gambling habit that had spiralled out of control. Christine Keenan pleaded guilty to 11 dishonesty charges and was jailed for three years. Dunedin Casino, however, is now in the dock before the Gambling Commission but is pleading not guilty to the charge that its managers breached the Gambling Act 2003.

New Zealand’s Department of the Interior is seeking the suspension of Dunedin Casino’s licence and the hearing, which started yesterday and will run for three days, has huge implications for casino operators. The Dunedin Casino management is fighting the application to suspend its licence, but failed to convince the Commission in April that it had no case to answer when it argued that as the new law was not enacted until July 2004 it should not be retrospective. The Commission considered the legal issues raised but decided to proceed to a full hearing.

Dunedin Casino is part of the boutique Southern Cross Hotel and is 40% owned by SKYCITY Entertainment Group, which bought its stake from Aspinalls in April 2004. Dunedin Casino is now managed by Dunedin Casinos Management Ltd, the company that faces having its operating licence suspended for six months. The Gambling Act 2003 requires the holder of a casino operator's licence who is conducting casino gambling to develop a policy for identifying problem gamblers, and the Dunedin Casino management claims that its policy complies with regulations.

Christine Keenan would gamble three or four times a week and had a total turnover of NZ$6.6 million (US$4 million), recording a NZ$50,000 (US$30,800) loss one month. The Department of Internal Affairs is maintaining that the casino management, which remained the same after the takeover, did nothing to prevent the excessive gambling by their client because of her value to the business – estimated to have been around 10% of annual profit. John Stansfield, CEO for the Problem Gambling Foundation of New Zealand, has said, “Playing the ostrich with its head in piles of money is not a reason for Dunedin Casino to ignore the obvious signs of problem gambling.”

Under the new Gambling Act problem gamblers must be identified and excluded from casinos. The Casino Control Act 1990 did not have a similar clause but in practice the Casino Control Authority gradually imposed such provisions when granting licences. The Dunedin licence was issued in 1999 and the management says it only required that the casino should have a problem gambling programme, with which it complied, but that neither the licence nor the 1990 Act required it to enforce the programme. The hearing continues today and tomorrow. (E-08.01.06)

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