In a Newshub exclusive, we can reveal the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) has found a litany of failures by the country's biggest casino to address gambling harm.
An audit of SkyCity Casino Auckland by the regulator in 2019, which was finalised last year, found the casino was below standard in nine out of 10 compliance areas. That's despite warnings to rectify similar issues in earlier audits.
SkyCity staff were "dismissive" of problem gambling issues, "failed" to identify excluded gamblers, and DIA states there's a "high likelihood" underage customers are accessing the casino.
In one case, a banned gambler played the pokies for 28 hours straight before it was noticed that she wasn't supposed to be on the premises.
SkyCity says it's made a lot of improvements, but Newshub's own undercover filming would suggest otherwise.
The main gaming floor at SkyCity Auckland is full of pokie machine lights and noises that fuel addiction - and a DIA report found "significant shortcomings" in the casino's efforts to minimise that harm.
Andree Froude from the Problem Gambling Foundation says the failings are "appalling".
"Look, this was really concerning. What we're seeing here is clear breaches of host responsibility," she says.
Being a responsible host is a legal requirement and a casino's licence depends on it.
But DIA found many failures at SkyCity. It says there were:
- "very few" harm and risk assessments carried out,
- a "dismissive attitude" by some staff to problem gambling issues, there was "insufficient staff" and "player ethnicity was not analysed" as a risk factor, despite Māori and Pacific customers being at greater risk
- More than half of customers enrolled in a voluntary programme to monitor their spending and time spent at the casino "breached their limits".
Despite this, SkyCity "took no action" and the breaches were "ignored". The DIA also found SkyCity's processes for identifying excluded or banned players were "deficient".
In one instance, an excluded and trespassed player got into the casino and played the pokies for 14-and-a-half hours and 28 hours straight in two separate incidents before anyone noticed anything.
"For someone to be able to sit at a pokie machine for 28 hours just should not be able to happen," Froude says.
- If you know more, email Michael Morrah in confidence at michael_morrah@discovery.com
Newshub obtained the audit under the Official Information Act, and Minister of Internal Affairs Jan Tinetti was unaware of it.
"It is unacceptable. That is, as I say, very, very distressing and I would expect us to be doing better than that," she says.
SkyCity failed nine out of 10 areas.
Internal Affairs told Newshub it concluded the failings were "systemic within the Auckland SkyCity site", although "no enforcement action was taken".
"Where is the accountability? You know, if this was alcohol, for example, and a venue served an underage patron, there would be consequences," Froude says.
Tinetti has announced a review of pokies at pubs and said casinos could be next. She admitted to Newshub she isn't sure the laws are working.
"We are making sure our legislation and our regulations are fit for purpose," she says.
"Absolutely I think there should be consequences."
SkyCity says the audit was done in 2019 and since then, the company's introduced many improvements, including facial recognition technology to identify excluded players, it's hired more staff, and put in place better training. It's also using an "enhanced" algorithm that analyses data to identify those at risk from gambling harm.
For customers who game continuously for long periods, the rules state that after five hours, the player should be interrupted and encouraged to take a 30-minute break. So Newshub put that to the test.
Newshub sent a person into the casino and they started playing the pokies at 9:44am on Friday. The time ticked by. We had a stopwatch running and made video recordings to verify the time spent at the casino.
In total, he spent five hours and 57 minutes playing the pokies.
"I'm pretty tired and pretty washed out. It was a long time to be playing in front of a screen," he said after leaving.
He only stopped playing for a couple of brief toilet breaks before resuming play. Remember, the rules state staff should interact with a customer after five hours and encourage them to take a 30-minute break.
He says no staff approached him at any point telling him to take a break.
After making his own decision to leave close to the six-hour mark, he said he was exhausted, broke, and certainly didn’t feel like a winner. He'd lost the $300 he came with.
After reviewing its own surveillance footage, a SkyCity spokesperson accepted that what Newshub discovered should not have been allowed to happen.
"SkyCity makes all endeavours to continuously improve our host responsibility practices. These have evolved and improved significantly over the last number of years, aided by multiple new technologies and increased resourcing," they say.
"However, we acknowledge there will always be room for further improvement which is why host responsibility is a group strategic priority at SkyCity."
