Australia likely to approve two more casinos

Deputy Premier, Jeff Seeney said the conditional approval of the six-star resorts in Cairns and the Gold Coast as a boon for overseas tourism.“These projects have the potential to create thousands of new jobs in these two key tourism centres,” he said.

However there is strong opposition against the new resorts with Tim Costello, chairman of the Australian Churches Gambling Taskforce, saying these regional casinos, in areas of high unemployment, would aggressively compete for local problem gamblers if there was a downturn in international high rollers.

“This is very foolish and shortsighted. It’s madness,” he said.“Their business model, because they’re never up front about it, is always heavily reliant on local custom.”

It is expected that by 2019 Sydney will have two casinos when James Packers Crown Entertainment opens the Barangaroo development exclusively for VIP players.

Queensland currently has more casinos than anywhere else in Australia, with four of the country’s 13 gaming venues in the sunshine state.

The Queensland government says the US$8.15bn Aquis project planned for Cairns and the proposed US$7.5bn Broadwater marine project on the Gold Coast would be granted casino licenses if construction went ahead.

The Australian-listed ASF consortium, backed by Chinese property interests, is behind the Gold Coast proposal, while Hong Kong billionaire Tony Fung is financing the Cairns project. Both developments are in the pre-planning phase and must obtain a number of planning and environmental approvals before building can begin.