GOLD COAST BULLETIN

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

GOLD Coast Mayor Tom Tate told a room full of business leaders that Jupiters Casino was a “three-star property”, saying it was badly in need of refurbishment.

Cr Tate made the comments during a speech at the annual Property Council of Australia lunch, staged just a few streets away from Jupiters at the Sofitel Broadbeach. Asked by Property Council Queensland head Kathy Mac Dermott what he thought of the casino, Cr Tate said the 27-year-old entertainment complex “did not represent the city well enough”.

“We have been left behind,” he said. “The casino is three-star. People fly straight into Sydney’s Star Casino

(from overseas) and then they go down to Crown in Melbourne, instead of coming to the Gold Coast.”

The casino is one of the Gold Coast’s largest employers, with about 2000 staff.

Cr Tate pushed for Echo Entertainment, which owned Jupiters, to fast-track the $350m redevelopment of the Broadbeach property that was first promised almost three years earlier.

But Echo’s attention had been on the Brisbane and Sydney markets,

where it was battling James Packer’s Crown Limited to maintain its sole casino rights in those cities.

Jupiters Hotel and Casino managing director Aaron Gomes said he was as anxious to move ahead with the redevelopment as Cr Tate was.

“We are in constant contact with the Queensland government about it and are progressing plans for Brisbane and Jupiters,” he said.

“But unfortunately we are at the whim of the government.”