The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government has still not made a decision on the Canberra Casino multi-million dollar redevelopment plans, despite it put a deadline on the casino owners to provide them with the necessary financial details months ago.
The redevelopment of Canberra Casino was officially discussed by the Government for the second time in 2018 this August. However, a spokeswoman for Chief Minister Andrew Barr revealed that the Cabinet has still not reached a final decision what to do about the unsolicited bid of Aquis Entertainment which has been aiming to redevelop the casino.
“Cabinet has not yet reached a final position on the unsolicited bid from Aquis,” Chief Minister Barr’s spokeswoman said.
The Canberra Casino redevelopment was originally proposed in 2015 by the gaming, entertainment and leisure provider Aquis Entertainment, which is currently owned by Hong Kong investor Tony Fung and his family. However, earlier in 2018 it became clear that the operator would have to secure more money for the completion of the redevelopment project estimated at AU$330 million.
Since the project was first suggested to the Government, the proposal has reached a dead end because there has not been further traction for the now. While the ACT Government has been engaged with forging legislation allowing Aquis Entertainment or another owner of the Canberra Casino to place hundreds of pokies on the gaming floor in case the gambling venue is eventually redeveloped, the operator’s share price saw a massive decline.
Currently, the company is also looking for a replacement of the managing director Jessica Mellor, following the latter’s resignation.
Aquis Set to Provide Key Financial Information
As mentioned above, the ACT Government urged Aquis Entertainment to provide it with key financial information regarding the project. It later, however, abandoned the month-long deadline in April.
At the time when the deadline for the provision of the financial documents was rolled out, the Gaming Minister Gordon Ramsay shared that one the ACT Government’s major considerations was the number of poker machines set to be operating in case that a redevelopment is actually made. The concerns of the Government are related to its former pledge to reduce the number of pokies to 4,000.
Later, the operator was given until May 14th to progress the unsolicited bid for the AU$330-million redevelopment of the ageing casino venue in exchange for receiving the Cabinet’s permission to operate poker machines in the venue’s gaming floor. Since then, no new deadline was set, despite the fact that the Government has revealed that it intended to continue working with the gaming and entertainment operator on new timeframes for information.
Aquis granted Canberra extension as Justin Fong quits
Australian-listed Aquis Entertainment has been granted an extension by the ACT government to the original 14 May deadline to submit a revised proposal for its planned multi-million dollar expansion of Casino Canberra. pic.twitter.com/LpUiIJEADC— DINGNews (@DINGNews) May 21, 2018
In 2017, a new piece of legislation was unveiled. Under the provisions, the Canberra Casino’s owner will be required to forfeit one in every three gaming machine licenses it acquires. This could end up with 130 licenses taken out of circulation in case that Aquis Entertainment decides to operate the casino’s maximum of 200 poker machines.
- Author
Olivia Cole
