The New Zealand Secretary of Internal Affairs, the Department of Internal Affairs, has requested that SkyCity Casino’s licence be suspended for approximately 10 days.
The Gambling Commission of New Zealand received the application under section 144 (a) New Zealand’s Gambling Act.
This section gives the Secretary the right to request that a casino license be suspended by the Commission if he believes the New Zealand Gambling Act or licence conditions have been violated.
The application is for SkyCity Casino Management Limited. SCML is SkyCity’s New Zealand operator licence. This includes SkyCity Auckland and SkyCity Hamilton.
Continuous play is a common occurrence
The Department received a complaint in February 2022 from an ex-SkyCity Auckland client. The customer played at the Auckland Casino from August 2017 until February 2021.
The secretary claims that SCML failed to “comply” with the requirements outlined in SkyCity Auckland’s Host Responsibilities Programme. The secretary says that this is related to “detections of incidents of continuous play by customers”.
The Commission must now decide if SCML will be suspended from its license. The Commission could decide to consider written submissions or hold an hearing. It could take months to complete this process.
SkyCity stated in a press release that it would not make any further comments on the issue.
The statement read: “SkyCity will cooperate fully with the Secretary in relation to the application, and the process,” it said. SkyCity will not comment on the allegations or the application at this time, as the Commission is currently considering the application.
SkyCity hits another bump
SkyCity has had a busy year. The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre will launch federal proceedings in December 2022 against SkyCity. The failures in anti-money laundering at SkyCity Adelaide led to this.
SkyCity , South Australia’s gaming regulator, Consumer and Business Services ordered a review of its anti-terrorist funding and AML programs in May.
SkyCity announced last month that it had provided AU$45m in advance of an assumed civil fine from Austrac.
