New Zealand authorities have officially withdrawn a previous 10-day application made to temporarily suspend SkyCity Entertainment Group’s Auckland casino gambling area after the company agreed with a 5-day operation suspension.
SkyCity Entertainment Group previously announced the closure of its Auckland casino for five consecutive days in 2024 as part of an agreement with the Department of Internal Affairs after admitting to breaches of host responsibility requirements.
The specific dates for the closure have not yet been disclosed but will span from Monday to Friday.
This closure follows an arrangement with the DIA, which included the department’s agreement to withdraw its application for a temporary suspension of SkyCity’s casino operator’s licence.
The original application, lodged in September 2023, called for a suspension of about ten days after a former customer, who gambled at the Auckland casino from 2017 to early 2021, filed a complaint. The DIA alleged that SkyCity failed to comply with host responsibility rules concerning continuous play by the customer.
In a statement today, SkyCity informed that the application made by the secretary for internal affairs in September 2023 has now been formally withdrawn from the Gambling Commission, which ‘confirmed that the matter is at an end’.
‘SkyCity will now liaise with the Secretary to agree the dates upon which the gambling area of the SkyCity Auckland casino will be temporarily closed, being five consecutive days from Monday to a Friday,’ the company added.
The group has acknowledged its failure to meet the requirements of the SkyCity Auckland Host Responsibility Programme (HRP). The company admitted it did not exercise the necessary vigilance in using staff observation and intervention to identify and act on incidents of continuous play by the customer.
SkyCity conceded it did not independently or adequately use staff observations alongside technology to monitor and address problematic behavior, particularly in cases where such behavior was silent or hidden.
Callum Mallett, SkyCity’s New Zealand chief operating officer, issued an apology for the “significant” failings, stating that the company is rightfully being held accountable.
The five-day closure is expected to impact SkyCity’s underlying earnings by approximately $5 million. Despite this setback, SkyCity projects its group underlying earnings for the 2025 financial year to be between NZ$245 million ($148.93 million) and NZ$265 million ($161.1 million).
