“Lottery is worse than the pokies” states SkyCity Boss
Nigel Morrison, the chief executive of Sky City Hotel Auckland has publicly stated that he believes the national lotteries are causing more harm to the general public and their pockets than his own casino establishment and the gambling devices found within.
He continued to state that whilst his hotel establishment Sky City plans to implement more machines, this will not result in more gambling related problems and addictions, due to the problematic public transport system. It is his belief that the difficulty in reaching the hotel casino via a troubling public transport system will be more of deterrence for prospective gamblers.
Currently the hotel casino has almost 1,650 pokies machines available on its premises, and in a deal with the government officials of New Zealand, is set to increase this number beyond that of 200 in exchange for the production of a convention centre.
Many anti-gambling organisations have become outraged over the proposal by increased machines and prospective gambling pokies machines within the city as well as the use of government funds to help provide an easy access to this proposal. Alongside those who are upset with this decision includes the Opposition party, whom says that the Government is selling the country’s laws and that the increase in machines will simply lead to a rise in problematic gambling and have further repercussions than predicted or stated initially.
Mr Morrision of Sky City Hotel & Casino has rebutted arguments against this proposal, stating that the lottery and “mums in South Auckland” that use pokies machines are causing more harm to the country and its funds than his casino and pokies machines do as a whole.
“There is no doubt the incidence of harm is through pokie machines in the community, scattered throughout the community,” says Mr Morrison.
“The reality is public transport in Auckland isn’t that great. You don’t just arrive at SkyCity. You make a deliberate decision to go to SkyCity.
“The incidence of harm cited from Lotto is greater than that from pokie machines in casinos. Getting those facts across is difficult.”
Whilst Sky City makes a strong profit from the dealings of its patrons using its machines, they still deliver 2.5% of their earnings and net profit to charitable trusts. In comparison however, pokies machines in clubs and bars pay back over 37% of their earnings to charitable trusts.
‘There is a very clear correlation between availability of machines and the number of machines and the number of problems,” Problem Gambling Foundation chief executive Graeme Ramsey told Auckland Now last week.
”Research shows for every gaming machine you put in you get 0.8 of a problem gambler, so it’s almost one for one.”
The PG Foundation also says that casinos are a greater influence of gambling problems rather than other methods of gambling.
Source: 3 News
