Star says two’s a crowd for casinos
IF the Gold Coast stays a one-horse casino town, Star’s boss says long-term its Broadbeach site will flourish into a mecca with 50-plus bars and restaurants.
But Star Entertainment Group chief executive Matt Bekier’s dream of maintaining a monopoly may be dashed by Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate spruiking a controversial proposal for a second casino resort in central Southport.
The State Government has said a second casino licence remains available on the Gold Coast despite termination of ASF’s integrated casino resort at The Spit. Mr Bekier said on a recent visit while there was “uncertainty about direct competition it’s harder to make that investment equation stack up”.
“At Broadbeach, we are very close to opening up the six-star hotel tower, expanding the food and beverage options and hopefully in the next three years developing another hotel.
“That’s as far as I can see until we have greater clarity on what the competitive environment looks like.”
Star has started building a $3 billion mega integrated resort at Brisbane’s Queens Wharf and Mr Bekier said the Gold Coast site was the “companion piece”.
“In an ideal world we would love to match capacity at Queens Wharf down here on the Coast which would mean 50 bars and restaurants here on the site, many more hotels, a lot more density.”
But Cr Tate said the city was big enough for two casinos and “a monopoly is not in the best interests of the city”.
“Star are going to want to be ahead of the game, be next level before the second casino comes along and use their goodwill,” Cr Tate said.
“I would say to Star think of it like when McDonald’s and KFC build next door to each other – it helps the other because of critical mass. They will play off each other, I really believe in that, otherwise Vegas wouldn’t have grown like it did.”
Mr Bekier said a second casino would “saturate” the market but pubs and clubs on the Coast would feel it the most. “But we’ll leave it to the Government to work out.”
Long-term, Star was moving toward an integrated resort model to capture tourism influxes and an expected increase in dining out.
Mr Bekier said forecasts showed from 2009 to 2025 China’s middle class would grow by 850 million “and when people enter the middle class they start to travel”.