A recent decision to approve Crown Limited’s plans to build a six star hotel and casino at Barangaroo means Sydney is set to be a city with two big casino complexes after 2019.
The decision, although it may surprise some, was taken due to the need to ‘inject competition’ into Sydney’s casino industry, which so far comprises Echo Entertainment’s The Star casino complex. Echo put up a rival bid involving the expansion of its casino, which is situated at Darling Harbour, and a bid to pay $250 million to make sure they continue to have exclusivity in the casino sector. However, it was decided that it’s better for customers and business to open up the market.
Currently, if Sydney casino goers want to gamble they either have to go to The Star or hop online to one of the many online casinos like au.winagames.com. Although online casinos offer increasingly realistic immersive experience and excellent gameplay, for some nothing beats the real life experience of visiting a casino – even when there are casino bonuses with clear terms and conditions.
Up until now, Echo has held the only casino licence in the city, but with this due to expire in 2019 and approval given to a rival company, it looks like they just won’t be able to hang on to the monopoly. A panel of experts, including David Murray, former Future Fund Chief, considered both bids in terms of the value of the plans to the New South Wales (NSW) economy. It was discovered that the value of Crown would be a whopping 26% higher than Echo Entertainment’s plan.
However, this doesn’t mean that Crown Sydney is now able to go ahead and build their proposed casino and hotel complex. They are now facing the final stage of the NSW Government’s proposal procedure. The Government has imposed various conditions and restrictions, which have to be considered by Crown Sydney who will then have to come back with a proposal showing how their casino meets the criteria set out.
The conditions imposed by the NSW government include revenue being taxed at 29% (rather than the 27.5% Crown had proposed), licence fees and taxes would have to be more than $1 billion during the first 15 years of the casino being open and operating and taxes would be reviewed independently after two decades of operation.
The NSW government feel the inclusion of a second casino-hotel in Sydney would be good for tourism and would, of course, create jobs. The government can pull out of the project at any time and the public will be able to comment all the way through the process. Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive Ken Morrison is in little doubt about the good effect Crown’s casino would have on Sydney. He said: “What we need in this city is a new tourist magnet and this… will draw in thousands of new international visitors to this city.”
