Casino Canberra has been struggling for quite some time. Over the course of the past year, the casino has seen declining profits and has been forced to lay of a significant number of staff members. Now, the venue has been thrown as lifeline as billionaire Tony Fung has decided to buy the casino.

This week, Justin Fung announced that the Aquis Great Barrier Reef Resort Group, which is owned by Tony Fung, has entered a share purchase agreement while will allow the operator to buy the venue from Casinos Austria International. If the company’s bid is successful, Fung will invest in the casino to help grow the tourism and gambling market in Australia’s capital.

"Casino Canberra is an excellent asset that we will ensure becomes an important attraction drawing visitors to Canberra as well as a great facility for locals," says Mr Fung. "We look forward to releasing our growth plans for the casino at the earliest opportunity.'' The Casino Canberra deal is just one of many acquisitions that Mr Fung aims to make this year.

He has planned on spending $270 million to acquire several Australian properties, including Casino Canberra, Reef Casino Trust. For years, Casino Canberra has been on the decline. Even after laying off staff, the casino still needed financial assistance. To solve the problem, the venue reduced opening hours and requested the addition of poker machines to the gaming floor.

The reduced hours did little to improve profits and the ACT government was reluctant to grant pokie licenses to the venue. With Mr Fung’s help, Casino Canberra can compete with some of the country’s biggest gambling venues. Crown Melbourne and The Star both attract thousands of wealth individuals from Asia every year.

Casino Canberra could break into this market, attracting VIP and high roller gamblers and competing with both Crown Resorts and Echo Entertainment.

About the Author

George Anderson
Author George, has over 25+ years’ experience in the Pokies and Casinos industry throughout Australia and New Zealand. Loves to research new Pokies games on the block and follows announcements from top industry providers about their upcoming releases. As soon as a new interesting pokie game appears on his radar, George is there to check it out and give you the scoop before anyone else and tell you about all casino sites where can play the latest game. Before this gig, George worked as Pokie game tester, making him an ideal candidate for this genre of work. He is also an animal lover and a proud owner of three dogs.