{"id":22433,"date":"2021-09-08T13:42:10","date_gmt":"2021-09-08T16:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=22433"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:53:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:53:01","slug":"new-zealand-casinos-temporary-changes-amid-covid-19-measures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/new-zealand-casinos-temporary-changes-amid-covid-19-measures","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand casinos: temporary changes amid Covid-19 measures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Authorities have allowed SkyCityHamilton Casino and Christchurch Casino to establish temporary cashiering facilities in their venues to comply with the Covid-19 social distancing measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>New Zealand.- Authorities in New Zealand have allowed\u00a0casinos to make <strong>temporary changes <\/strong>to guarantee safe operation amid Covid-19 countermeasures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>SkyCity Hamilton Casino<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>Christchurch Casino\u00a0<\/strong>had asked the Gambling Commission\u00a0for permission to <strong>establish temporary cashiering facilities in their venues\u00a0<\/strong>in line with the Ministry of Health\u2019s latest recommendations and guidelines for operating at Alert Level 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SkyCity Hamilton will have <strong>a zone that will only host poker machines<\/strong>, while the other zone would host gaming tables and machines. The Christchurch Casino will have five zones with cashiering facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Gambling Commission said that\u00a0<strong>the establishment of additional cash register facilities did not cause any regulatory issues<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It said that facilitating casino cash access was an issue that required thorough consideration but that <strong>considering the continuing situation of the Covid-19 pandemic<\/strong> it would temporarily approve SkyCity Hamilton Casino and Christchurch\u2019s requests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Authorities have allowed an\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/skycity-to-reopen-hamilton-and-queenstown-casinos\">easing of Covid-19 countermeasures<\/a>\u00a0across the country except for Auckland. <strong>SkyCity is reopening its venues in Hamilton and Queenstown<\/strong> but its\u00a0<strong>Wharf Casino will remain closed due to ongoing border restrictions<\/strong>\u00a0and the lack of tourism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SkyCity Auckland will also remain closed as the city remains under \u201cLevel 4\u201d restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In August there was\u00a0<strong>a rise in betting sales<\/strong>, especially for TAB and Lotto, while casinos remained closed. <strong>Spending was up 65 per cent<\/strong>.\u00a0The country also saw a rise in liquor and retail sales as\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/new-zealand-extends-level-4-lockdown-until-august-27\">under the \u201cLevel 4\u201d lockdown<\/a>, people could only leave their houses to buy food or medical supplies or for socially distanced exercise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Authorities have allowed SkyCityHamilton Casino and Christchurch Casino to establish temporary cashiering facilities in their venues to comply with the Covid-19 social distancing measures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":22434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"New Zealand authorities have granted SkyCity Hamilton Casino and Christchurch Casino temporary approval to establish additional cashiering facilities within their venues. This measure facilitates compliance with COVID-19 social distancing protocols under Alert Level 2, enabling operational adjustments for patron access to funds while mitigating public health risks. The Gambling Commission deemed these temporary modifications permissible without significant regulatory conflict.","focusai_entities":"SkyCity Hamilton Casino, Christchurch Casino, Gambling Commission, Ministry of Health, SkyCity, Wharf Casino, SkyCity Auckland, TAB, Lotto","focusai_location":"New Zealand, Hamilton, Christchurch, Auckland, Queenstown","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (1.0), product_ux (0.7), marketing_crm (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory precedent implications","query":"What long-term implications does the Gambling Commission's temporary approval for distributed cashiering facilities have for future regulatory flexibility in New Zealand's iGaming and land-based casino sectors?"},{"label":"SkyCity revenue impact","query":"How will the staggered reopening of SkyCity's New Zealand venues, coupled with ongoing border restrictions affecting tourism, impact its Q3\/Q4 GGR and NGR projections, particularly for its Auckland and Queenstown operations?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,28,158],"tags":[23911,23907],"class_list":["post-22433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-casino-news","category-slider-home","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-land-based-casino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22433"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22453,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22433\/revisions\/22453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}