Gambler given free wine as she lost up to $50,000 a month

Christine Keenan

On her 40th birthday, Christine Keenan went to a casino for the first time - and won.

A week later she was back and winning again, starting a three-year spree during which she spent more than $6 million in the Dunedin Casino.

It ended when she was jailed for stealing to fuel her addiction.

The details were given yesterday at a Gambling Commission hearing in Auckland where the Government is making its first attempt to suspend a casino's licence for failing to identify and help a "problem gambler".

The commission, chaired by former National MP Graeme Reeves, heard that Mrs Keenan's gambling quickly escalated after her first visit to the casino, in April 2001.

She lost an average of more than $5600 a month that year.

Over the next three years, she gambled hundreds of thousands of dollars, losing up to $50,000 a month.

She had a casino club card that tracked her performance; it showed her turnover exceeded $6.6 million by June 2004.

Department of Internal Affairs lawyer Mark Woolford said Mrs Keenan would usually arrive in the late afternoon and gamble into the evening. She was gambling almost every second day, and casino records showed that on more than 20 occasions she was there for more than five hours.

Her habit attracted favourable attention from casino bosses. She was given as much food and alcohol as she wanted, and once "drank the casino out of a particular brand of wine".

Mr Woolford said staff began to have concerns about the level of her spending, her drinking, and the fact that in front of a gaming machine she was "pretty much oblivious to what was going on around her".

As Mrs Keenan's addiction worsened, she sold her house, used the money from her marriage settlement and spent her inheritance.

She was contributing "at least 10 per cent" of the casino's annual profit.

Eventually, she started stealing from her employers and in August 2004 she was arrested as she left the casino.

In December that year she pleaded guilty to 11 dishonesty charges, and was jailed for three years.

The three-day Gambling Commission hearing is to decide whether casino managers breached the Gambling Act, which took effect in July 2004, by failing to exercise appropriate procedures to identify and exclude problem gamblers.

The landmark case has enormous implications for companies running gambling operations, including Sky City which part-owns the boutique Dunedin Casino in the inner-city Southern Cross Hotel.

The Government is pressing for a suspension of the casino's licence. Six months is the maximum suspension that can be imposed.

The case hinges on whether casino managers recognised Mrs Keenan had a problem, and whether they had adequately followed policy and tried to do something about it.

In his opening submission yesterday, Mr Woolford said evidence would show general manager Rod Woolley identified Mrs Keenan as a problem gambler, but chose not to do anything about it "because of her value to the casino".

She was clearly identified because she was approached on several occasions by Mr Woolley, who told her she was gambling to a level that some may consider excessive.

Enquiries were also made with her employer to see if the accounts she administered were in order.

"Why on earth would the general manager approach the employer of a patron unless there were real concerns about the extent of her gambling?" Mr Woolford said.

Dunedin Casinos Management is fighting the application to suspend its licence.

The hearing continues today.


BIG SPENDER

Christine Keenan's figures:

* $6.6 million total turnover

* $50,000 highest monthly loss

* $582,000 total recorded loss

* 684 visits to the casino in 1218 days (on average, every second day)

* 240 reports to management (made when amount spent was more than $1000 in a day)

* 10 per cent contribution to casino's annual profit

* $470,000 stolen to pay for the gambling habit

* 3 years' jail for 11 dishonesty offences