CASINO BIDDER’S BUM NOTE
State preparing to tell casino licence bidders...
THE entertainment offerings of a prospective second casino operator have been blasted as “what you’d expect from your local pub”. Acts appearing at Hard Rock casinos have included the Magic Mike male strip show and Koo Koo Kanga Roo on their “very very sweaty tour”.
THE Palaszczuk Government is pressing ahead with its plans for a second casino despite last week pledging there will be no extra poker machine licences issued for the Gold Coast.
The government will go to market by year’s end for a global tourism hub, due to include the casino.
All potential bidders during informal talks with the Government are being advised about its policy of not increasing the number of poker machines on the Coast.
The decision to go to market will trigger another 12 months of planning as proponents respond to a call for expression of interests and community consultation is launched.
“We will be going to market by the end of the year, at which time we will stipulate what we require in the resort project,” a Government insider said.
The Bulletin understands the process for the Coast will be similar to that in Cairns where the Government is seeking interest in a proposed $1 billion global tourism hub.
Senior government officers are in talks with up to 11 entities and remain hopeful that towards the end of this year the short-list for Cairns will be reduced to a handful.
Government sources suggest Cairns is expected to be resolved much quicker than the Coast project.
“Cairns was launched at the start of the year. It will take a year from start to finish. The Gold Coast is a different beast. It will take longer,” the government source said.
US-based casino and hotel giant Hard Rock and Caesars Entertainment have emerged as major players chasing the second casino licence on the Glitter Strip.
“Caesars Entertainment continues to explore and evaluate opportunities to expand our brand of entertainment globally, including the Gold Coast,” a Caesars Entertainment spokesman said.
“We understand the Gold Coast is a special place, and continue to undertake due diligence to determine how a Caesars presence might add value to the community and the state.
“Caesars is committed to completing its full due diligence once the parameters of the bid process are known. Until that process is complete it would be inappropriate to speculate.”
In an email last month to the State Government, city council and Gold Coast tourism leaders, Hard Rock International flagged its plan to bid for the global tourism hub.
The Florida-based company wants to build an “entertainment-centric” development much different to the Coast’s sole operator, The Star at Broadbeach.
Edward Tracy, the company’s CEO for Asia Pacific, wrote to the Government and
industry leaders: “What intrigues us is the holistic model presented by the Queensland Government for the IRD (integrated resort development) plans. They made it clear that they are not setting out to expand the industry in its current form, which is in saturation.
“That aligns with Hard Rock’s vision as we are not
keen to build another property in the mould of the incumbent operators.”
The decision to promise that there will be no new poker machines on the Gold Coast means any new operator will need to secure existing licences.
With Clubs Queensland declaring their licences are “not
for sale”, the new casino operator will have to turn to hotels.
There are 75 hotel operators on the Gold Coast which between them control 2300 poker machines.
Clubs Queensland, which has been critical of the State’s approach to the second casino, has demanded a moratorium be placed on any decisions relating to an integrated resort until after Brisbane’s Queens Wharf opens in 2020. “It is just good business sense,” Clubs Queensland president Doug Flockhart said.
“The Minister seems to be caught between a rock and a Hard Rock at the moment.”