Unlimited Table Games for New Brisbane Casino at Queen’s Wharf

There’s a lot happening in the Queen’s Wharf district of Brisbane, Queensland these days. A $3 billion consortium, including a casino, hotel and mass retail epicenter, is being constructed. Taking up an enormous 9.4 hectares of land, it’s not due for completion until 2022, but we now know Star Entertainment‘s new Brisbane casino will be allowed to host as many live and electronic table games as it wants.

Official word came down this week from Queensland that the site has been approved to host an unlimited number of table games. These may include live dealer tables, electronic tables, or a combination of both. That’s great for business, but not everyone was pleased by the regulator’s decision.

Anti-gambling advocates – anti-pokies lobbyists in particular – are incensed by the Palaszczuk-led government’s decision not to cap the number of casino table games allowed on the Queen’s Wharf casino’s gaming floor.

Minister Tim Costello is the Chairman of the Australian Churches Gambling Taskforce, and has been one of the most outspoken antagonists on the issue. While the group’s anti-gambling campaign focuses predominantly on the potential harm caused by poker machines, and the need to reform pokies regulations, he says electronic table games are “no different”.

“Like pokies, these are the crack cocaine of gambling,” said Costello. He’s used that same slogan for years now in regards to poker machines, and is now employing it towards the group’s latest anti-gambling campaign, calling electronic table games, “the next-generation of pokies.”

Perhaps the only person more candid in his distaste for pokies is Senator Nick Xenophon. At no surprise to anyone, his opinion of the unlimited table games cap at the new Brisbane casino is no different. He went so far as to call the government’s decision “a classic bait and switch” maneuver.

“There doesn’t appear to have been any assessment on what it will mean for gambling addiction. It seems that the whole process lacks clarity and transparency,” he argued.

“There has been no real consideration of the public interest and despite the promise it is for high-rollers, the reality is it will suck money out of the whole economy and suck money from small and medium businesses, especially retail and hospitality,” expounded the SA politician.

No Room for New Brisbane Casino?

According to some analysts, Queensland’s southeast region is already saturated in terms of gambling market space, making the establishment of such a large casino a bad business move. However, the Queen’s Wharf project is so much more than that.

By the time Destination Brisbane Consortium completes the new epicenter, it will contain 5 international hotels (including a Ritz-Carlton), 3 apartment complexes, 50 restaurants and cafes, and an immense retail center, all of which will dwarf the casino as just another form of entertainment to be had in the district.

A spokesperson for Star Entertainment said their new Brisbane casino isn’t being treated any differently than their competitors. “Subject to regulatory approvals,” the spokesman said, any casino in Queensland could receive the same permit to host unlimited casino table games.

“The electronic versions are significantly different to pokies in that they are multi-terminal and allow for more than one player to participate in traditional table games, roulette as an example, simultaneously,” the spokesman concluded.