Internal Affairs Minister Jan Tinetti says she's "incredibly" concerned by the litany of failures by New Zealand's biggest casino SkyCity to address harmful gambling.
It comes after an exclusive Newshub report revealed an audit of SkyCity's Auckland casino by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) in 2019, which was finalised last year, found it was below standard in nine out of 10 compliance areas.
SkyCity staff were "dismissive" of problem gambling issues, "failed" to identify excluded gamblers and there was a "high likelihood" underage customers were accessing the casino, the report said.
Newshub Live at 8pm host Rebecca Wright asked Tinetti on Monday what she made of the report.
"I find that incredibly concerning and, in fact… I find it really distressing," Tinetti said.
The DIA report found that in one case, a banned gambler was able to play on the pokies for 28 hours before being noticed.
"Twenty-eight hours is far too long to be spending at a pokie machine," Tinetti told Newshub.
"We know that pokie machines cause the biggest amount of harm out of any gambling in this country and that's just not acceptable - absolutely not acceptable.
"I would expect that the casino themselves puts harm minimisation as an absolute priority.
"We have to ensure we are keeping people safe, in this country, from gambling harms and that is something that is an absolute priority to me."
Tinetti went on to say she's asked officials for advice on why SkyCity hasn't faced enforcement action.
"I want to have some further conversations with the regulators in this space," she added.
Tinetti said she wanted answers on the matter.
"I want those answers myself and that's exactly what I'm finding out from my officials; to find out exactly what are the consequences for those sort of infringements. It is not good enough."
She said her job was to look at the legislation around the issue to see how well they were working.
Tinetti has announced a review of pokies at pubs and said casinos could be next. She earlier admitted to Newshub she wasn't sure the laws were working.
"As I've said, we know that this causes a lot of harm - I am passionate about minimising this harm. We all know people who have been impacted in this way - we all know the harm that gambling can cause."
