Callum Mallett: SkyCity Chief Operating Officer apologises as casino closes for five days

SkyCity is apologising for failing to intervene with a repeat player in Auckland.

A customer complained to Internal Affairs after gambling went continuously unnoticed on 23 occasions.

SkyCity says a system failure meant they went undetected - and it's committed to improving its harm minimisation technology.

Chief Operating Officer Callum Mallett says they'll close the casino for five days to work with the Department of Internal Affairs on how to improve.

"We have an obligation at the five-hour mark to ensure that we have interactions with a customer, and we failed to do that. We're sorry for that, and we are focused on doing better."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And sky City has agreed to shut its casino for
five days at a cost of about five million dollars.
It comes after an internal affairs investigation found twenty three
incidents where customers were able to gamble continuously. Sky City
has admitted it breached its harm minimization obligations. Calum Mallett
at sky City's chief operating officer and is with us
this evening. Hi Callum, Hi, Jack, So what was the

(00:22):
absolute worst case scenario here? What was the longest continuous
gambling case?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, Jack, in this sense, since there were twenty three
instances for one player, and you know, we have an
obligation at the five hour mark to ensure that we
have interactions with a customer, and we failed to do that,
and you know we're sorry for that and we are
focused on getting better.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
So this was twenty three incidents where that player was
able to play for more than five hours, correct, yeesh?
How did this happen?

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Well, it was over a four year period, Jack, And
we rely on both people but also on technology to
alert us to instances where people haven't had the required
breaks that they need to under our host responsibility program,
and we didn't get it right. And since twenty twenty one,
we have been focused on a significant risk management transformation program,

(01:21):
which is included adding significant numbers of people, significant competency
and risk expertise from board level right the way through
the business and ensuring that we are really focused on training.
On top of that, we're also also introducing mandatory carded
play across our New Zealand businesses from the middle of

(01:42):
next year. Essentially, what that means is if you don't
have a card, you won't be able to play at
our casinos and we will use those cards to help
track time and for people. But really importantly, people themselves
will be able to use that information to monitor themselves
and will lock them shemes up. But you know here, Dak, Yeah,
so one thing, you know, we're really gutted about this.

(02:04):
You know, we failed this customer and we're sorry for
that and we're focused on getting better. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
So when you say there was a technology fail as
well as the human element in this, what was the
technology fail?

Speaker 2 (02:17):
So we have we use a number of technologies. One
of those technologies that we used at the time was
an alert that essentially monitored how long people are on
a machine for and then would send us an alert,
and you know that wasn't set right. We fixed that.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
How does it know how long it's been on a machine.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
From when they're using a card? Ah?

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Right, so that was previously only cards, Yeah, but not
everyone had to have a card, right.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Correct, And so we've introduced since twenty nineteen facial recognition technology,
which not only helps us with excluded and banned players
at the front door, but also helps us to monitor
for continuous play for that long place. So we're making
sure we have those chickens. Yeah, but the technology is
really important, but the people are the most important piece jack.

(03:06):
Making sure that they are trained and looking for those
signs and wrapping that care around the customers there is fundamental.
But there's no question mandatory carded play will be a
significant help for us in this space.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yeah, so can you pick which days the casino will
close down?

Speaker 2 (03:24):
We can't know the days a natural of Friday, and
we need to work with the d i A. This
is on the basis the Gambling Commission signs off on
this agreement. We will then choose a week that the
DA needs to approve.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
What would be the busiest days of the week for
the casino.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Our Fridays and Saturdays traditionally, right, So.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
If the plan goes through, sky City will still be
open on a Saturday, Orthough would be closed on Friday night.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Correct to be closed on the Friday night. But putting
aside the day's gap, what we want to make sure
that we reflect on here is that you know, we're
really disappointed by this. We're gut it and the financial
penalty is one thing, and the impact you know, to staff,
et cetera. But you know, we failed here and we
want to get better at moving forward, and we're using

(04:16):
this as just another focus point for us to continuously improve.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
When you say the impact on staff, will your staff
still be paid for those days that they're not working, Yes.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
They will still be paid. But it's the impact of
a day like this. You know, I don't want to
be on a call with you talking about this where
we failed and our staff, you know, don't want to
be having conversations with their families and friends about this,
and you know, so we're deeply gutted by it and
we want to get better.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
Thanks for finding up, Callum, appreciate it. That is Callum Mallo.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Thanks Jack.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
He's the chief operating officer of sky City, New Zealand.
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