The review was undertaken by retired Supreme Court judge Brian Martin AO KC, and comes at a time when Australian casino operators have been fined hundreds of million dollars for regulatory failings.
SkyCity Entertainment Group, which owns the Adelaide integrated resort alongside casinos in New Zealand and the soon-to-open New Zealand International Convention Centre (NZICC) in Auckland, has already been hit with a $67 million penalty after Australia’s financial crimes watchdog AUSTRAC launched legal action.
In the review report from Martin, released yesterday, both significant failings and the work SkyCity has done to remediate these were noted.
“If I had been asked to determine the suitability of the licensee and SCEG (SkyCity Entertainment Group) at the end of October 2021, the inevitable answer would have been that neither were suitable,” Martin wrote in the report.
“Since then, the situation has changed.
“The significance of past failures needs to be considered in the context of the licensee’s subsequent behaviour, changes in personnel and the licensee’s current corporate culture and governance,” he said further into the report.
“I am satisfied that, today, the licensee is a suitable person to hold the licence and operate the casino.”
South Australia’s liquor and gambling commissioner, Brett Humphrey, accepted the finding of suitability for SkyCity Adelaide.
“This is an extremely thorough consideration of SkyCity Adelaide’s conduct prior to both Mr Martin’s investigation and the AUSTRAC civil proceedings, its attitude whilst being investigated, and the changes that have been made since the AUSTRAC proceedings concluded,” he said.
“Even though many of the issues raised have either been addressed or are being addressed through a program of work being supervised by the independent monitor since August 2023, the deficiencies and breaches uncovered are deeply concerning.
“I am considering Mr Martin’s findings as well as ongoing work by Consumer and Business Services to determine what enforcement action I may take in light of these breaches,” said Humphrey.
“I will also be looking at what measures may be required for the ongoing future operations of the licence.”
The independent review began in 2022 but was put on hold through most of 2023 and half of 2024 while the legal proceedings between AUSTRAC and SkyCity were taking place.
SkyCity Entertainment Group released a statement to the stock market regarding the findings of the report yesterday.
“We fully accept and acknowledge the findings of the report that we did not measure up to the standards required, and we apologise for those failings,” said SkyCity Entertainment Group’s CEO, Jason Walbridge.
“We further acknowledge Mr Martin’s findings and the commissioner’s comments that we still have work to do. We remain committed to our B3 programme and constructive engagement with all our regulators.
“We have made significant enhancements in terms of leadership, resourcing and systems, including a commitment to invest ~$60 million over three years to transform our culture, to uplift our financial crime and host responsibility practices.
“Our team has worked hard to raise our standards, better meet our obligations and improve how we look after our customers.”
SkyCity Adelaide’s footprint includes significant event space and hotel inventory.
