Sky City is asking for yet another perk as part of its deal with the city of Auckland to build a convention centre. While casino operator is already getting an additional 500 poker machines that will generate $75 million each year, Sky City is now asking for cashless gambling technology.
Currently, at Sky City Auckland, players must use real cash to play electronic casino games. What they want is a new ticket system, which would allow players to use barcode tickets to collect their winnings. The same tickets can also be used to play pokies. Other casinos across the country have employed this technology already, and Sky City claims that it wants to follow suit in order to combat money laundering.
However, city councilors do not believe that the ticket system has the safety of customers at heart. While it is a step towards preventing money laundering, it also disassociates players from the reality of gambling. By using tickets, they are not seeing exactly how much money they are spending on poker machines and other electronic games, so it is easier to spend more than they had budgeted for.
This is one of the first requests that the local government has turned down as part of the deal with Sky City. It will be interesting to see what the casino operator asks for next.
