Latest / Best of Business / Callum Mallett: SkyCity Chief Operating Officer apologises as casino closes for five days

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Callum Mallett: SkyCity Chief Operating Officer apologises as casino closes for five days · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks B follow
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  Speaker 2: And sky City has agreed to shut its casino for
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  Speaker 2: five days at a cost of about five million dollars.
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  Speaker 2: It comes after an internal affairs investigation found twenty three
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  Speaker 2: incidents where customers were able to gamble continuously. Sky City
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  Speaker 2: has admitted it breached its harm minimization obligations. Calum Mallett
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  Speaker 2: is sky City's chief operating officer and is with us
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  Speaker 2: a scevning Hi Callum, Hi, Jack, So what was the
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  Speaker 2: absolute worst case scenario here? What was the longest continuous
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  Speaker 2: gambling case?
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  Speaker 3: Well, Jack, in this instance, there were twenty three instances
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  Speaker 3: for one player, and you know, we have an obligation
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  Speaker 3: at the five hour mark to ensure that we have
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  Speaker 3: interactions with a customer and we failed to do that,
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  Speaker 3: and you know, we're sorry for that and we are
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  Speaker 3: focused on getting better.
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  Speaker 2: So this is twenty three incidents where that player was
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  Speaker 2: able to play for more than five hours. Correct, Yiche,
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  Speaker 2: How did this happen?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it was over a four year period, Jack, And
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  Speaker 3: we rely on both people but also on technology to
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  Speaker 3: alert us to instances where people haven't had the required
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  Speaker 3: breaks that they need to under our host responsibility program
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  Speaker 3: and we didn't get it right. And since twenty twenty one,
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  Speaker 3: we have been focused on a significant risk management transformation program,
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  Speaker 3: which is included adding significant numbers of people, significant competency
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  Speaker 3: and risk expertise from board level right the way through
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  Speaker 3: the business and ensuring that we are really focused on training.
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  Speaker 3: On top of that, we're also also introducing mandatory carded
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  Speaker 3: play across our New Zealand businesses from the middle of
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  Speaker 3: the next year. Essentially, what that means is if you
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  Speaker 3: don't have a card, you won't be able to play
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  Speaker 3: at our casinos and we will use those cards to
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  Speaker 3: help track time and for people. But really importantly people
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  Speaker 3: themselves will be able to use that information to monitor
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  Speaker 3: themselves and will lock the machines up. But you know here, Dak, Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: so one thing, you know, we're really gutted about this.
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  Speaker 3: You know, we failed this customer and we're sorry for
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  Speaker 3: that and we're focused on getting better. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: So when you say there was a technology fail as
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  Speaker 2: well as the human element in this, what was the
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  Speaker 2: technology fail?
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  Speaker 3: So we have we use a number of technologies. One
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  Speaker 3: of those technologies that we use at the time was
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  Speaker 3: an alert that essentially monitored how long people are on
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  Speaker 3: a machine for and then would send us an alert.
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  Speaker 3: And you know that wasn't set right. We fixed that.
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  Speaker 2: How does it know how long? So it's been on
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  Speaker 2: a machine.
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  Speaker 3: From when they're using a card?
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  Speaker 2: All right? So that was previously on our cards. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: but not everyone had to have a card.
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  Speaker 3: Right, correct, And so we've introduced since twenty nineteen facial
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  Speaker 3: recognition technology, which not only helps us with excluded and
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  Speaker 3: bands players at the front door, but also helps us
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  Speaker 3: to monitor for continuous play for that long place. So
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  Speaker 3: we're making sure we have those chickens. But technicology is
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  Speaker 3: really important, but the people are the most important piece chack.
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  Speaker 3: Making sure that they are trained and looking for those
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  Speaker 3: signs and wrapping that care around the customers is fundamental.
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  Speaker 3: But there's no question mandatory carded play will be a
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  Speaker 3: significant help for us in this space.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so can you pick which days the casino will
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  Speaker 2: close down?
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  Speaker 3: We can't know the days a natural of Friday, and
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  Speaker 3: we need to work with the DA because on the
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  Speaker 3: basis the Gambling Commission signs off on this agreement. We
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  Speaker 3: will then choose a week that the DA needs to approve.
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  Speaker 2: What would be the busiest days of the week for the.
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  Speaker 3: Casino Fridays and Saturdays traditionally, right, so.
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  Speaker 2: If the plan goes through, sky City will still be
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  Speaker 2: open on a Saturday, although it would be closed on
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  Speaker 2: Friday night.
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  Speaker 3: Correct to be close on the Friday night. Putting aside
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  Speaker 3: the case Gak. You know what we want to make
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  Speaker 3: sure that we reflect on here is that you know,
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  Speaker 3: we're really disappointed by this. We're guts and the financial
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  Speaker 3: penalty is one thing, and the impact you know, to staff,
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  Speaker 3: et cetera. But you know, we failed here and we
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  Speaker 3: want to get better at moving forward and we're using
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  Speaker 3: this as just another focus point for us to continuously improve.
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  Speaker 2: When you say the impact on staff, will your staff
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  Speaker 2: still be paid for those days that they're not working.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, they will still be paid. But it's the impact
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  Speaker 3: of a day like this. You know, I don't want
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  Speaker 3: to be on a call with you talking about this
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  Speaker 3: where we failed, and our staff, you know, don't want
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  Speaker 3: to be having conversations with their families and friends about this,
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  Speaker 3: and you know so we're deeply gutted by it and
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  Speaker 3: we want to get better.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks for finding up Callum appreciate it. That is Callum mallop.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks Jack.
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  Speaker 2: He's the chief operating officer of sky City, New Zealand.
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