Vegas heavyweights eyeing off second Gold Coast casino site
TWO Las Vegas heavyweights are eyeing off the Gold Coast’s second casino licence as Clubs Queensland vows to fight the plan despite confirming it is almost certain to happen.
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THE peak body representing community clubs across Queensland has conceded that a second casino on the Gold Coast is now almost inevitable.
According to Clubs Queensland it has become abundantly clear in recent discussions with the Queensland Government that one of two remaining casino licenses is destined to be granted for a second casino operation in the Gold Coast region.
It comes after Tourism Minister Kate Jones flew to the US in June where she met with several high-rollers in the Las Vegas casino industry.
According to a report filed with Queensland Parliament Ms Jones met with senior staff from
Caesars Palace and MGM Resorts.
While Ms Jones said the meetings were primarily concerned with a casino operation linked to the Global tourism Hub proposed for Cairns, it’s understood that interest was expressed by several major Las Vegas casino operators in the upcoming Gold Coast offering.
According to some government sources the State government will run out the Cairns GTH first, which is about 12 months ahead of the Gold Coast.
Ms Jones said while she was overseas she had a number of meetings with some of the world’s leading entertainment companies, keen to invest in Queensland.
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“Our Global Tourism Hubs policy is about developing new tourism infrastructure to attract more visitors who stay longer and spend more in our state,” she said.
“That’s what we’re doing with Queen’s Wharf in Brisbane — a project that will bring 1.4 million extra visitors to our state every year. This project will also create 2000 jobs during construction and 10,000 jobs once it’s up and running.
“Genuine Global Tourism Hubs derive more than 65 per cent of their income from entertainment and restaurants, not from gaming.
“We’re currently in market for proposals for a Global Tourism Hub in Tropical North Queensland.”
However, Clubs Queensland CEO Doug Flockhart said while a second casino on the Coast was starting to look like a lay-down-misere the group would continue to fight against the move.
“The Government is courting Caesars and MGM to open a new casino on the Gold Coast,” he said.
“But there is no real business case for that given the majority of customers for Australian casinos, between, 60 per cent to 80 per cent, are locals.
“A second casino would just steal customers from the existing casino and pubs and clubs and start a turf war with no real growth.”
Mr Flockhart said there was also the introduction of Brisbane’s Queens Wharf project to consider.
“In 2022 Queens Wharf will become Australia’s newest casino and pragmatically it makes sense to us to wait and see what the real effect of that development is before you approve a second Gold Coast casino.
“Objectively, all of us want to see the Gold Coast grow its tourism offer to ensure sustainability, but we can guarantee more casinos with poker machines will not attract higher levels of domestic or international visitation.”
“More casinos aren’t necessary to drive tourism and according to official tourism visitor data released by Tourism Research Australia, the International Visitor Survey and the National Visitor Survey, which confirms there has been a long-term decline in visitation to casinos.”
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