SkyCity Auckland Hit by Scammers

The SkyCity casino in Auckland was hit by a group of scammers who bet vast amounts of money, lost $2.4 million and then left the country without paying.

The scammers came to light during SkyCity Entertainment Group’s full year results presentation where the company’s net profit was revealed to be down by $1.7 million. Managing director Nigel Morrison said, “We haven’t experienced this before, and we do regard it as a bit of a scam. The guys who have done it have done it at other properties too.”

Morrison went on to say that several members of the group were registered as high-rollers elsewhere which means they weren’t flagged as a risk.

SkyCity advances credit facilities to high-rollers of $100m each year and Morrison says the loss needs to be seen in perspective.

Since the incident surveillance at SkyCity Auckland has been upgraded and Morrison said that bad debts are “a fact of doing business in this space.”

SkyCity’s profits for did drop by $11.2 million for the 12 months to June 30 however, Morrison has said that the business is well positioned and that it’s an “acceptable result”.