Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
Tight Controls Needed at Casino
...Press Release...
May 22,
2008
Tight Controls Needed at
Casino
Allowing SkyCity casino to relax host
responsibility rules for high rollers will attract more
stolen money to it says the Problem Gambling
Foundation.
Problem Gambling Foundation CEO, John
Stansfield, says a 2008 Australian study of 512 people
committed of gambling fraud showed they had stolen $2.69
billion over a ten year period.
Pokie machines were
by far the most nominated mode of gambling for
offenders.
"SkyCity management wants rules to be
relaxed so they can become more like Star City in Sydney or
Crown Casino in Melbourne," Mr Stansfield
says
"Well let me tell you about the 31 year old
father of two earning $44,000 per year. He stole $10.5
million from customer accounts to gamble with. At least 8.5
million of this was spent at Star Casino.
"Then
there is the mother of three who burned through over half a
million dollars of stolen money in a 147 hours of gambling
on the pokies at Crown casino.
"They were treated
like kings by the casinos.
"There are many such
stories and in every case the casino ignored their gambling
problem by using the excuse they were high
rollers.
"You can just about guarantee that at this
very moment there is a similar drama playing itself out at
SkyCity."
Mr Stansfield says that it is significant
that casino wants to relax the rules around the use of
pokies.
"The casinos like us to think of them as a
place of sophisticated entertainment with James Bond type
characters playing table games.
"In fact the pokies
are where they make their money and the big spenders are
likely to be sitting in a dark corner huddled over a pokie
machine."
Mr Stansfield says the continued fall in
the SkyCity share price reflected investors increased
understanding that casinos are not recession proof and the
operation was operated in a toxic and unsustainable
manner.
"This is a small country with a limited
customer base and a tight business community.
"A
corporate that accepts money stolen from other businesses
and entices its customers into developing problems poisons
the well of goodwill after a while.
"Trying to
attract more overseas customers is a desperate attempt to
avoid the consequences of their business practices and is
unlikely to
work."
Ends
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