In September SKYCITY Entertainment Group announced that a bid had been made to buy the business for a ‘significant premium.’ Since then it seems that two parties expressed interest, neither of which met the deadline of Wednesday 5 December, although one group is said to be still interested. There is increasing criticism of the SkyCity board over the handling of the possible takeover bid.

The New Zealand Gambling Commission has brought in a new programme to tighten controls on problem gamblers that it describes as setting a new standard compared to existing programmes in New Zealand and probably Australia. SkyCity has denied reports that this will have a major effect on profits, saying that fewer than 2% of customers are problem gamblers and possibly the same percentage of revenue came from these gamblers.

The company resisted attempts to make data on frequency of visits and spending per session as strong indicators of potential gambling problems but did agree to accept them as general indicators. Strong indicators have been limited to severe emotional distress, self-identification and third-party disclosures. Loyalty card holders will now be able to request information on how much they have lost, and third-party disclosures will have to be recorded.

All loan transactions by third parties for financial gain will be banned and anyone identified as a problem gambler will have to be excluded unless the casino considers the person can continue to gamble without harm. Indicators to be considered as potential problem gambling will be visiting the casino 5 times a week and spending over NZ$300 on slot machines or visiting at least twice a week and spending NZ$500 or more. (E-12.11.07)

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