Casino Canberra has had a hard time recently, as the venue has had trouble boosting its profits. The casino has laid off several employees and will reduce its opening hours in the New Year, but there are doubts that these measures will improve its performance. To help boost profits, Casino Canberra hopes to introduce pokies to the gaming floor for the first time.
This week, the casino’s executives decided to lay off four full-time staff members by making their positions redundant. They have also decided to cut casual shifts to accommodate the new opening times. Starting December 31st, the casino will open at 4:30pm and close at 4am. These cuts will help to reduce operating costs for Casino Canberra. According to the Canberra Times, the measures will help the casino break even.
Marketing Director Peter Cursely believes that more can be done to help the venue recover and possibly turn a profit. He has suggested that the introduction of poker machines could greatly benefit the casino, by helping to increase revenue and slash operating costs.
“'The problem is that to open a table game, there are mandatory staffing levels we have to abide by whereas two people could probably run 100 gaming machines,” says Mr Cursley. Mr Cursley states that poker machines are responsible for at least 60% of casinos’ profits. Since Casino Canberra is one of the few major gambling venues in Australia that does not have pokies, the venue is missing out on valuable revenue.
Unfortunately, the local government is not on board with the plan. Gaming Minister Joy Burch has decided to uphold the policy against installing poker machines at Casino Canberra. Local politicians view installing pokies at Casino Canberra as a backwards step, since most city councils are in the process of reducing their poker machine numbers and gaming machine caps.
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