REPORTS AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY THE CASINO
Tere is just one casino in Australian Capital Territory. Te Casino Canberra is located in Glebe Park in the city’s Central Business District and offers accommodation through its partnership with Crowne Plaza which sits adjacent to the casino.
Te casino is currently operated by Tony Fung’s Aquis Entertainment who in July this year agreed to sell the casino for $63m to NSW-based Iris Capital.
Tis comes as welcome news to Aquis, which was due to sell the casino back in 2019 to Blue Whale Entertainment for $32m until the deal fell through after the company failed to obtain approvals from the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission.
Te casino failed to get its ambitious $330m redevelopment plan off the ground, which
subsidiary Aquis Canberra after trumping a $58.2m bid by Capital Leisure and Entertainment who tried to acquire the company in September. Te sale is conditional based on regulatory approval.
Te casino reported a profit of $798,200 in 2020 reversing a $3.9m loss the previous year. However, 2021 genereated a $470,000 loss due to Covid closures.
THE POKIES
Pokies in ACT were legalised in clubs in 1976. Bars in the state can operate a maximum of two Class B (draw poker) EGMs whilst hotels with 12 or more units of accommodation can operate a maximum of 10 Class B EGMs whilst those with less can operate only two machines. Tere is no venue cap for club venues.
As of June 2022, there were 31 EGM licensees (26
Casino Canberra was bought by Tony Fung back in 2014 from Casinos Austria for $6.5m who received a licence from the ACT government to operate the newly built casino in 1982. Te casino opened in 1992 at a temporary location and moved to its official location in 1994. Casino Canberra
included a controversial proposal to redevelop the casino precinct with luxury hotels, high end shopping, bars, cafes, and convention centre.
Te casino resort project was refused after the government said laws to limit land available for further gambling development made it difficult for the plans to progress. A conditional approval to operate EGMs as part of the redevelopment has also fallen by the wayside due to COVID and lack of talks with the government.
Te casino has apparently struggled financially in recent years and it is said Casino Canberra has one of the smallest gambling turnovers in the country and is the only casino not allowed to operate slots.
It was bought by Tony Fung back in 2014 from Casinos Austria for $6.5m, who had received a licence from the ACT government to operate the newly built casino in 1982. Te casino opened in 1992 at a temporary location and moved to its official location in 1994.
Te decision to not permit pokies was down to the influence of Canberra’s clubs and pubs who thought that the casino operating slots would threaten the revenue of other establishments.
Aquis submitted a request to install up to 500 slots back in 2015 and the government introduced a counter offer of 200 slots and 60 EGMs, although Aquis balked at this reduced offer.
Under the recent buyout announcement, Iris Capital will buy 100 per cent of the shares in
P50 WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS
clubs and five hotels), 48 licensed venues, 3,863 EGM authorisations and 3,646 EGMs in operation. Tis is compared to more than 5,000 EGMs in 2015.
In August 2018, the ACT government tabled the Pathway to 4,000 gaming machines scheme to reduce the number of slots in the state to 4,000 by the year 2020. Tis was via a two-step approach both voluntary and compulsory surrender of gaming machine authorisations with various incentives introduced.
Applicants for voluntary surrender had to submit their application by January 2019 whilst compulsory took place in April 2019 and April 2020.
Te Gaming Machine Surrender Incentive programme was re-established in March 2022 to support Canberra’s community clubs whilst reducing harm caused by EGMs. Te aim is to now reduce the number of pokies to 3,500.
Meanwhile, there is a proposal in place to cap pokie bet limits to $5 and $100 credit limits via a proposed Central Monitoring System introduction.
Te changes to the regulations were outlined in a discussion paper released by the Minister of Gaming, Shane Rattenbury in April. It is estimated some 44,000 Canberra residents are affected by gambling harm with around $2bn spent on pokies annually.
Currently, individual pokie bets are capped at $10
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