Casino Canberra
Casino Canberra is a casino in the Australian capital Canberra . It is located in the city center on Binara Street, near the National Convention Center . The casino, which opened in 1994, was initially owned by Casinos Austria ; since 2014 it has belonged to the Aquis Group from Hong Kong .
offer
Compared to other casinos in Australia, the one in Canberra is relatively small and does not have its own hotel accommodations, theaters, auditoriums or retail stores. However, such facilities are available in the immediate vicinity. The only casino in the Australian Capital Territory is also the only one in Australia that does not have a license to operate slot machines . There are 39 gaming tables where blackjack , roulette , baccarat and other games of chance can be played. The casino also has a poker lounge and a sports lounge with totalizator facilities.
history
After the federal government approved the granting of a casino license, the government of the Australian Capital Territory selected the Austrian company Casinos Austria International as the preferred operator. The subsidiary Casino Canberra Ltd. was then founded. In return for the license, Casinos Austria paid $ 19 million upfront for the lease of the property and an annual license fee of $ 500,000. Casino Canberra began operations on November 14, 1992 in temporary premises at the National Convention Center . On July 29, 1994, it moved to a building built specifically for this purpose around 200 meters away. In December 2014, the Aquis Group, controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Tony Fung, took over the then loss-making casino for a purchase price of six million dollars.
License restrictions
Casino Canberra has the only license to operate gaming tables in the Australian Capital Territory, but unlike other Australian casinos, it is not allowed to operate slot machines. To no avail, the casino has attempted to lobby the government of the territory to remove restrictions. These attempts have failed, in part due to concerns from Canberra clubs about losing revenue from their own slot machines. Amendments to the Casino Control Act were unsuccessfully introduced in the legislative assembly on two occasions. In March 2013, the Canberra Times reported that, concerned about its continued viability, the casino was ready to hand over land to the government to allow the National Convention Center to expand and to pay upfront fees in exchange for licensing rights for 200 machines.
After the proposal to extensively renovate the casino premises in exchange for the right to 500 slot machine licenses, a fundamental agreement was reached with First Minister Andrew Barr in May 2016 . According to this, 200 licenses are to be issued, but only after completion of the renovation and only if the licenses have been acquired by the owners of existing machines below the machine limit.
Web links
- Casino Canberra (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Casino Canberra's Contribution to the ACT economy. (PDF, 2.7 MB) Australian Government Productivity Commission, March 2006, p. 4 , accessed on March 2, 2020 .
- ^ A b Casino Canberra's Contribution to the ACT economy. P. 7.
- ^ Casino Canberra's Contribution to the ACT economy. P. 24.
- ^ Casino Canberra Officially Owned by Aquis. Casino News, December 24, 2014, accessed March 2, 2020 .
- ^ Scott Hannaford: Casino land plan unlikely to pay out. The Canberra Times, March 10, 2013, accessed March 2, 2020 .
- ↑ Barr cleverly steps around casino pokies ban. The Canberra Times, May 6, 2016, accessed March 2, 2020 .
- ^ Kirsten Lawson, Tom McIlroy: Canberra casino to get 200 poker machines. The Canberra Times, May 5, 2016, accessed March 2, 2020 .
Coordinates: 35 ° 16 ′ 56 ″ S , 149 ° 8 ′ 3 ″ E