Aquis Entertainment has been told to go back to the drawing board on its multi-million dollar expansion of Casino Canberra, after a stalemate with the ACT government.
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In a statement on Wednesday, Chief Minister Andrew Barr said cabinet had decided the unsolicited bid would not progress in its "current form" due to the conditions imposed on Aquis Entertainment's proposal, coupled with a lack of financial details on the unsolicited bid.
Aquis had instead been asked to consider moving forward with a smaller redevelopment, Mr Barr said.
It has taken three years for the government to finally reject the plan.
Gaming Minister told Aquis in April it had one month to finalise its proposal but the deadline was indefinitely extended.
The casino has not been happy with the government’s treatment of its redevelopment plans since its bells and whistles announcement in 2015 of plans to spend $330 million transforming the Glebe Park precinct, including hotels, prestige brand shopping, and a new convention centre.
In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange, chief executive Jessica Mellor said certain decisions taken by the ACT on electronic gaming machines and not to make certain land available meant it was difficult to continue with their original proposal.
However she said the casino would continue talks with the government about “development opportunities”.
“Aquis continues to believe that the development of an integrated entertainment precinct in Canberra’s CBD offers Canberra and the ACT a once in a lifetime tourism infrastructure opportunity,” Ms Mellor said.
Laws the ACT Legislative Assembly passed last year would only allow the casino to operate 200 poker machines, as well as 60 fully-automated table games. The casino originally wanted 500 machines.
The legislation also limited punters to $2 spins and forced them to nominate how much they are prepared to lose in advance, a concession negotiated by the Greens in exchange for their help passing the bill.
Asked whether the legislation made a Canberra Casino redevelopment less viable, a spokesman for Ms Mellor said: “We have no further comment on this point”.
The Greens spokesman on gambling reform Shane Rattenbury said the laws struck the right balance between supporting new business endeavours and guarding against further gambling harm.
“If the casino’s business model relied on having to have an excessive number of poker machines, it was clearly flawed.”
Canberra Liberals' gaming spokesman Mark Parton said it was no surprise the poker machine restrictions had affected the redevelopment.
Earlier in the year, Mr Parton said if he was a bookmaker he would be offering 10 to one against the casino redevelopment going ahead.
"The Labor-Greens Government wants to blame a lack of information from Aquis but in reality this is due to the government’s lack of consultation and communication with Aquis and those in the industry," Mr Parton said.
However a Labor spokeswoman said the government stood by the reforms, and the conditions were the only way to get the legislation through the Assembly.
Ms Mellor did not specify what land she was referring to either, but early on in the bid Mr Barr scotched the proposal to incorporate the convention centre in the new development.
There has also been much speculation about a piece of land the government bought in Glebe Park from businessmen Barry Morris, Graham Potts, Richard Tindale and Joe Bisa, which has since been subject to a audit report that was highly critical of the negotiations. The auditor found the $3.8 million price tag was poorly justified.
Part of that land was to have been sold to the casino for its new footprint, although there has been confusion over the status of that plan. In late 2015 Mr Barr signed a briefing document which referred to “Aquis' rights to Block 24 Section 65".
Mr Barr subsequently denied that Aquis had any rights to the block and suggested he might have been confused when he signed the briefing paper.
He told an inquiry late in 2017 that he was "not aware of any rights that the casino has to that block", and "there has been no decision of government to give the casino any rights".
The government confirmed Block 24 Section 65 was the site in question. A spokeswoman said the government would retain this site to provide maximum planning scope for future facilities, including traffic flow and water management, and it would not form part of the redevelopment.
"It should never be presumed, by any unsolicited bid proponent, that public land will just be granted to them," she said.
Ms Mellor’s statement also drew attention to the government’s more recent demand for detailed financing information of the redevelopment plans.
She said Aquis had been unable to provide the detail requested without the government telling Aquis what it would require in taxes, licence fees and legislation. It’s understood the government could not provide this information until the unsolicited bid has progressed to the next stage.
Ms Mellor also said Aquis “had received a number of non-binding indicative and confidential proposals to acquire Canberra Casino or to acquire some or all of the controlling shareholding in Aquis".
"Aquis has sought to advance these discussions on a confidential basis with a view to reaching a binding proposal. These discussions remain ongoing.”
Asked whether this meant Aquis was selling the casino, Ms Mellor’s spokesman said: “Aquis can’t ‘sell Canberra Casino’ just like that. It’s a listed company.”
