{"id":28282,"date":"2022-03-22T07:51:51","date_gmt":"2022-03-22T10:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=28282"},"modified":"2026-04-23T10:19:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:19:47","slug":"dia-audit-skycity-auckland-failed-to-tackle-gambling-related-harm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/dia-audit-skycity-auckland-failed-to-tackle-gambling-related-harm","title":{"rendered":"DIA Audit: SkyCity Auckland failed to tackle gambling-related harm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs has found that SkyCity Casino repeatedly failed to tackle gambling-related harm at its Auckland venue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New Zealand.- An audit conducted by\u00a0<strong>the New Zealand Department of Home Affairs (DIA)<\/strong>\u00a0has concluded that SkyCity Auckland repeatedly failed to address gambling-related harm. The investigation, which was completed last year, found that operator underperformed in nine out of 10 areas of compliance despite warnings to address similar issues in previous audits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SkyCity staff were arrogant about problem gaming issue and<strong>\u00a0failed to identify banned players<\/strong>, the audit found. It also identified a high probability of underage customers entering the casino. Local media outlet Newshub shared the case of<strong>\u00a0a banned gambler who played pokies for 28 hours<\/strong>\u00a0straight before being discovered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Andree Froude<\/strong> from the Problem Gambling Foundation\u00a0said: &#8220;For someone to be able to sit at a pokie machine for 28 hours just should not be able to happen.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SkyCity argued that the DIA audit began in 2019 and that the casino has since taken various steps, including the use of facial recognition to identify self-excluded customers.\u00a0The company also said it has increased the number of employees and that staff are now better trained.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Home secretary <strong>Jan Tinetti\u00a0<\/strong>told Newshub she was unaware of the audit and has plans for a review of pub slot machines and gambling sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>See also:&nbsp;<\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/new-zealand-announces-review-after-us1-81bn-spent-on-gambling-in-2020-21\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">New Zealand announces review after US$1.81bn spent on gambling in 2020\/21<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs has found that SkyCity Casino repeatedly failed to tackle gambling-related harm at its Auckland venue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"An audit by the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs found SkyCity Auckland repeatedly failed to address gambling-related harm, citing staff arrogance, inability to identify banned players, and potential underage entry. Despite previous warnings, the operator underperformed in nine out of ten compliance areas. SkyCity claims to have implemented facial recognition and enhanced staff training since the 2019 audit, while the Home Secretary plans a broader review of gambling sites.","focusai_entities":"SkyCity Casino, New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, Problem Gambling Foundation, Andree Froude, Jan Tinetti, Newshub","focusai_location":"New Zealand, Auckland","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), affiliate_publisher (0.7), product_ux (0.7), tech_data (0.8), marketing_crm (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"DIA Enforcement Actions","query":"What specific enforcement actions or penalties, beyond public audit findings, is the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs considering against SkyCity for these repeated compliance failures?"},{"label":"SkyCity Remediation Efficacy","query":"How will SkyCity demonstrate the efficacy of its post-2019 remediation efforts, including facial recognition and enhanced training, to the DIA to prevent future regulatory breaches and restore stakeholder confidence?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156],"tags":[1137],"class_list":["post-28282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","tag-skycity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28282","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=28282"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28292,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28282\/revisions\/28292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}