SkyCity Entertainment Group will shut its Auckland casino for five days after an Internal Affairs prosecution for breaches of host responsibility over five years.

The shutdown will cost the casino an estimated $1 million a day, and will be the first voluntary casino closure in New Zealand history.

The company said it reached an agreement with the secretary for Internal Affairs to resolve an application to temporarily suspend its casino operator’s licence.

“As part of the agreement, SkyCity has agreed to close the gambling area of the SkyCity Auckland casino for five consecutive days in 2024,” the company said.

When that happens hasn’t been specified – just that it will be five consecutive days this year.

The company acknowledged not meeting its host responsibility programme on the detection of continuous play by one customer due to a design error in a technology system.

That has since been rectified, it said.

The company has formally apologised for its failures.

SkyCity’s shares fell 1c in early trading to $1.52.

The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) said SkyCity agreed to a five-day voluntary closure for licence breaches relating to its harm minimisation obligations.

It followed a complaint from a customer who gambled at the Auckland casino between 2017 and 2021.

“The estimated loss of income to SkyCity due to the five-day closure is around NZ$5 million,” the DIA said in a statement this morning.

“This agreement is conditional on the Gambling Commission consenting to the withdrawal of the proceedings.”

Photo / Dean Purcell

The DIA said it identified 23 incidents where the customer could gamble continuously without detection by SkyCity’s technological system for identifying continuous play, and without appropriate staff oversight or interaction.

“The resolution agreement is an unprecedented result. This is the first voluntary closure of a casino and is the longest suspension of operations in a casino under the Gambling Act,” said Vicki Scott, DIA director of gambling.

“Gambling has a real potential to cause harm to customers, their whānau and their communities.”

Scott said casinos and other gambling operators had strict obligations around preventing and minimising harm from gambling.

In February, Internal Affairs filed charges against the company, a chief saying then it is important criminals don’t launder money in New Zealand.

SkyCity said at the time it was “disappointed” it had not met the standard to which it needed to hold itself. The gaming giant would engage with the department on proposed proceedings, to resolve these matters quickly and efficiently.

These alleged failures variously spanned from February 2018 to March 2023, it said.

Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.