Boutique casino after big spenders

SIMON HENDERY finds Queenstown is seeking rich punters

Sky City is gambling that its new Sky Alpine Queenstown casino will draw high-stakes punters from Australia and Southeast Asia to New Zealand.

The company's chief executive Evan Davies said the boutique casino that opened yesterday would have a "relatively small" impact on the company's overall profit.

Sky Alpine is a joint venture between Sky City and Skyline Enterprises, operators of Queenstown's gondola.

Three of the gaming tables are in an invitation-only VIP room that has been designed to attract high-rolling gamblers.

Mr Davies said that about a dozen Sky City staff in Auckland, and one in Singapore, were involved in marketing Auckland and Queenstown casino packages to wealthy punters in Australia and Southeast Asia.

The packages offered to big-betting clients included free airfares and free accommodation.

Sky Alpine project manager David Glen said bets on the VIP baccarat table would be between $100 and $50,000, but these limits would be reviewed.

Mr Davies said Sky City would never target mega-gamblers such as media magnate Kerry Packer, who has wagered tens of millions of dollars during a single casino session, because it saw that type of business as being high risk.

"You won't be seeing a line-up of private jets at the [Queenstown] airport," he said.

The casino cost $9 million to build. A further $6 million was spent on legal fees and the other costs of the often bitter three-year battle to win the operating licence.

The operation will employ about 100 staff and is expected to generate about $13 million in revenue from its restaurant, bar, 70 slot machines, and nine gaming tables.

Sky Alpine is one of the two boutique casinos that were granted licences in Queenstown by the Casino Control Authority in April last year.

The Sky Alpine operation is expected to increase visitor nights in Queenstown by 17,500 a year.

The town's other casino, the Wharf Casino operated by Otago Casinos, opened last year.

Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin also have casinos. The fate of the country's sixth casino, planned for Hamilton and also backed by Sky City, hangs on a court ruling that is expected to be delivered before the end of the year.

Mr Davies said Sky City was looking for further "land-based" investment opportunities, particularly in the Pacific Islands.

He said it was likely that investment opportunities would arise during the next 12 months.

"There's some smaller businesses in some of the tourist destinations among some of the Pacific Islands that are potentially interesting."

* Simon Hendery travelled to Queenstown for the opening of the Sky Alpine casino as a guest of Sky City.