Queen’s Wharf will be a winner but no denying many visitors will lose

It seems like we’ve been waiting an eternity.

The $3.6 billion Queen’s Wharf hospitality and entertainment complex is only weeks away from opening, having irrevocably transformed the Brisbane skyline for years now.

And we’ve been waiting so damn long. Campbell Newman – remember him? – got the ball rolling when he was still premier, almost a decade ago now.

Queen’s Wharf staged openings begin in August.

Annastacia Palaszczuk announced Echo (now Star) as the winning bid a few months into her long premiership, and it’ll be left to her successor Steven Miles to cut the ribbon.

Happy days are here again – just think about the views from that sky deck, which you can bet will be instantly Instafamous.

Think about the awesome bars, the top-end restaurants, the pumping nightclubs. I say this with all sincerity – it’s going to be amazing, and like many I’m looking forward to spending some of my hard-earned there.

But – and it’s a big but (so big, in fact, Sir Mix-a-Lot is getting ready to write a song about it) – we must always remember the price we pay for such opulence.

It’s the Voldemort component, barely mentioned in The Star Brisbane’s marketing for Queen’s Wharf, but without it propping up the rest financially, it wouldn’t be happening.

The casino.

The Star has been at pains to say the casino will “make up 5 per cent of the Queen’s Wharf Brisbane precinct”. No doubt that’s true, but without that 5 per cent, the rest would not be happening.

And while it was high-rolling international gamblers The Star Brisbane was aiming to attract, most of the gaming floor will be considerably less well-heeled.

Not that long ago, I found myself at The Treasury casino, which is set to close in the days before Queen’s Wharf opens – what is Brisbane to do without a casino for those days? The horror!

I was there to watch a Socceroos match being played on the other side of the world in Brisbane’s pre-dawn hours, because this New World City was sadly lacking in other options that night.

What I saw was not the image The Star wants to project. There were revellers, to be sure, and plenty of people – hopefully without car keys – having a great time.

But there were also the lonely ones, sitting alone at a poker machine pressing a button every few seconds. They weren’t out for a night on the town. Those machines were their purpose.

And while I don’t begrudge anyone their preferred leisure activity, and or want to be judgmental, it was just ... sad.

(The Socceroos’ result didn’t help the mood either, it must be said.)

In February, this masthead revealed what, deep down, we already knew – that there was a “reasonable likelihood” that new casino would create an additional 300 problem gamblers in Brisbane.

While alarming, what was downright scandalous was that figure was contained in a Queensland University of Technology report that cost taxpayers $2 million, but the Queensland government tried its damnedest to keep hidden.

Only through Right to Information laws did it ever see the light of day.

Those international high-rollers? Well, the report found a mere fraction of gamblers would come from that jet-setting crew – about 85 per cent of patrons would live in Queensland.

Labor commissioned the research, which was meant to be ongoing, in 2017. Perhaps not liking the findings, it quietly shelved it after the first report was delivered in 2018-19.

The Star has called the research out-of-date, and insists it has turned the page after some regulatory scrutiny found myriad governance problems, including criminal activity at its Sydney casino.

But there’s no denying that, for a segment of our population, the Queen’s Wharf opening will be the portent of disaster. Those 300 people? Many will have families, who will bear the brunt of whatever horrors are unleashed.

At a time so many people are struggling to keep a roof over their heads, this shiny new palace won’t help.

Now, this isn’t a critique of the ills of gambling – I’ve been known to put a few chips down in my time.

It’s just a reminder of what’s paying for Brisbane’s newest jewel.

Give them some thought, and hope Star acts as a responsible corporate citizen, doing its best to mitigate the social damage its incredible new venue will inevitably cause.

There’s a lot to look forward to with Queen’s Wharf. We must never forget, though, that it comes at a terrible cost.