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Speaker 1: And sky City has agreed to shut its casino for

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Speaker 1: five days at a cost of about five million dollars.

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Speaker 1: It comes after an internal affairs investigation found twenty three

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Speaker 1: incidents where customers were able to gamble continuously. Sky City

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Speaker 1: has admitted it breached its harm minimization obligations. Calum Mallett

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Speaker 1: at sky City's chief operating officer and is with us

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Speaker 1: this evening. Hi Callum, Hi, Jack, So what was the

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Speaker 1: absolute worst case scenario here? What was the longest continuous

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Speaker 1: gambling case?

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Speaker 2: Well, Jack, in this sense, since there were twenty three

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Speaker 2: instances for one player, and you know, we have an

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Speaker 2: obligation at the five hour mark to ensure that we

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Speaker 2: have interactions with a customer, and we failed to do that,

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Speaker 2: and you know we're sorry for that and we are

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Speaker 2: focused on getting better.

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Speaker 1: So this was twenty three incidents where that player was

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Speaker 1: able to play for more than five hours, correct, yeesh?

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Speaker 1: How did this happen?

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Speaker 2: Well, it was over a four year period, Jack, And

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Speaker 2: we rely on both people but also on technology to

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Speaker 2: alert us to instances where people haven't had the required

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Speaker 2: breaks that they need to under our host responsibility program,

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Speaker 2: and we didn't get it right. And since twenty twenty one,

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Speaker 2: we have been focused on a significant risk management transformation program,

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Speaker 2: which is included adding significant numbers of people, significant competency

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Speaker 2: and risk expertise from board level right the way through

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Speaker 2: the business and ensuring that we are really focused on training.

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Speaker 2: On top of that, we're also also introducing mandatory carded

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Speaker 2: play across our New Zealand businesses from the middle of

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Speaker 2: next year. Essentially, what that means is if you don't

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Speaker 2: have a card, you won't be able to play at

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Speaker 2: our casinos and we will use those cards to help

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Speaker 2: track time and for people. But really importantly, people themselves

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Speaker 2: will be able to use that information to monitor themselves

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Speaker 2: and will lock them shemes up. But you know here, Dak, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: so one thing, you know, we're really gutted about this.

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Speaker 2: You know, we failed this customer and we're sorry for

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Speaker 2: that and we're focused on getting better. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So when you say there was a technology fail as

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Speaker 1: well as the human element in this, what was the

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Speaker 1: technology fail?

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Speaker 2: So we have we use a number of technologies. One

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Speaker 2: of those technologies that we used at the time was

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Speaker 2: an alert that essentially monitored how long people are on

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Speaker 2: a machine for and then would send us an alert,

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Speaker 2: and you know that wasn't set right. We fixed that.

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

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Speaker 2: From when they're using a card? Ah?

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Speaker 1: Right, so that was previously only cards, Yeah, but not

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Speaker 1: everyone had to have a card, right.

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Speaker 2: Correct, And so we've introduced since twenty nineteen facial recognition technology,

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Speaker 2: which not only helps us with excluded and banned players

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Speaker 2: at the front door, but also helps us to monitor

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Speaker 2: for continuous play for that long place. So we're making

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Speaker 2: sure we have those chickens. Yeah, but the technology is

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Speaker 2: really important, but the people are the most important piece jack.

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Speaker 2: Making sure that they are trained and looking for those

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Speaker 2: signs and wrapping that care around the customers there is fundamental.

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Speaker 2: But there's no question mandatory carded play will be a

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Speaker 2: significant help for us in this space.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so can you pick which days the casino will

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Speaker 1: close down?

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Speaker 2: We can't know the days a natural of Friday, and

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Speaker 2: we need to work with the d i A. This

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Speaker 2: is on the basis the Gambling Commission signs off on

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Speaker 2: this agreement. We will then choose a week that the

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Speaker 2: DA needs to approve.

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Speaker 1: What would be the busiest days of the week for

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Speaker 1: the casino.

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Speaker 2: Our Fridays and Saturdays traditionally, right, So.

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Speaker 1: If the plan goes through, sky City will still be

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Speaker 1: open on a Saturday, Orthough would be closed on Friday night.

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Speaker 2: Correct to be closed on the Friday night. But putting

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Speaker 2: aside the day's gap, what we want to make sure

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Speaker 2: that we reflect on here is that you know, we're

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Speaker 2: really disappointed by this. We're gut it and the financial

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Speaker 2: penalty is one thing, and the impact you know, to staff,

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Speaker 2: et cetera. But you know, we failed here and we

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Speaker 2: want to get better at moving forward, and we're using

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Speaker 2: this as just another focus point for us to continuously improve.

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Speaker 1: When you say the impact on staff, will your staff

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Speaker 1: still be paid for those days that they're not working, Yes.

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Speaker 2: They will still be paid. But it's the impact of

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Speaker 2: a day like this. You know, I don't want to

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Speaker 2: be on a call with you talking about this where

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Speaker 2: we failed and our staff, you know, don't want to

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Speaker 2: be having conversations with their families and friends about this,

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Speaker 2: and you know, so we're deeply gutted by it and

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Speaker 2: we want to get better.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for finding up, Callum, appreciate it. That is Callum Mallo.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Jack.

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

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