Clubs Exec Ball: Sydney is a warning
Hong-Kong-based Aquis Entertainment, owner of Casino Canberra, is looking to add 500 pokies to the property, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. It has appealed to the Australian government to expand its ACT gaming model so it can add pokies for the first time. That’s raised the ire of Clubs Australia, a gaming lobby group that has always resisted an overhaul of ACT pokies regulations.
Aquis says its “full-service gaming model” would help to bring in big-spending Asian tourists. The Clubs say the company is really after the locals market. Clubs Australia Executive Director Anthony Ball scoffed at the Aquis proposal, which estimates that pokies could bring in an additional 700,000 new visitors each year to the Bush Capital.
“We look at what’s happening in Canberra with some skepticism,” Ball said. “We have a casino operator talking a lot about VIP gamblers coming in from Asia and China and apparently flying over Singapore, the Philippines, while avoiding Melbourne and Sydney before landing in Canberra to have a bet. They are selling the dream, but we know they really have their eyes on Canberra locals. And once they get their license they will go after them aggressively and that will decimate the clubs industry in the ACT.”
Presently, the Herald reports, all of the ACT’s 4500 poker machines operate in about 50 pubs and clubs, most within 10 kilometers of Canberra. The lobbyist may be right to be concerned about casino pokies; 17 clubs closed in Sydney after the Star Entertainment Group revamped its Sydney casino.
“The Sydney experience is a salutary tale, where many great not-for-profit community clubs were consigned to the history books,” Ball said. “History shows us as soon as they are set, casinos aggressively market to locals. They talk a lot about VIPs but when it matters they spend a lot of time marketing to families that live in the Australian cities.”
