The Sky City Deal: More problem gamblers, $34m taxpayer advertising campaign & the best criminal cash Laundromat in NZ

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You always knew the Sky City deal was a smelly pus filled infected anus, but you never truly appreciate the full scent of corruption until it hits you full in the face.

The deal is out and the horror of the true enormity of what Key has traded away in return for a Convention Centre Gambling Hall with all the architectural charm of road kill is beginning to dawn on us all.

-The deal gives away $34m over 4 years to promote Sky City gambling (total contradiction to minimize the harm of gambling via advertising restrictions).

-The deal will see more filthy pokie machines which of course will generate more problem gamblers (regardless of the ridiculous assurances of Sky City that a new program of host responsibility will do anything to curtail peoples gambling addictions).

-The new ticket system for these new pokie machines will make cash untraceable. This will be a magnet for every criminal in NZ wanting to launder their cash, it is a means of cleaning money that will effectively make Sky City the bank of choice for criminals.

-We have effectively handed over all the public space of Federal Street to Sky City.

-Sky City will have the ability to take damages against any future legislation that curtails their evil.

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-We just handed them the ability to keep this up unchallenged until 2048.

Effectively the polar ice caps will have melted and global warming in full effect before Sky City can be regulated again.

The myth that Key is this great deal maker has been shown up for the vast lie it always was. He displayed this with Warner Bros when Key made the manufactured crisis at the Hobbit a political issue to attack the unions with. Once he was in that room with Warner Bros Execs, he had no choice but to agree with any extra corporate welfare they wanted because he had invested so much political capital in attacking Helen Kelly.

We see the same mistakes here. Key has invested too much political capital for the deal to fall over and so has accepted a bullshit deal that gives away so much for so very little.

To see the NZ Prime Minister pimp for a fucking casino is a disgrace. We accept regulated gambling the way we accept convicted child molesters being released back into society after their sentence is served – very reluctantly.

Regulated gambling, like tobacco and alcohol, should always have the firm, crushing grip of Government restrictions around their throat at all times, to watch John Key spinelessly bend over backwards for gambling is a new low.

Shameful.

9 COMMENTS

  1. Martyn

    So basically you don’t want a convention centre built at no cost to the tax payer that will bring in an estimated $90 million a year, employ 1000 people for construction and 800 jobs when up and running? All because of people who say they are problem gamblers?
    If people who have a problem with drinking should we stop another bar being built or how about people who are obese, should we stop building take aways?
    So if you had your way this opportunity this would not happen at all because a small minority of people can’t exercise some self control and personal responsibility?

    Kind regards

    Stephen

    • no stephen – thats totally in your own mind

      the opposition to this isnt because people are trying to ignore personal responsibility

      1) problem gambling – it exists, has negative outcomes for society and sky city wouldnt be pushing for more pokies if they werent going to make more profit from it. A lot more profit, and pokies are the biggest source of problem gambling

      2) the ongoing jobs – these will be nowhere near the mythical 800 figure, and given the nature of a convention center the jobs will almost all be intermitent casual labour. Not really what i would call a good employment environment.

      3) its not free! – were going to end up subsidising this whether its busy or not to the tune of tens of millions P/A.

      4) the govt is also building a new convention center in CHCH when their own documents state that there isnt enough business for both – and then theres the pimping for a third in queenstown.

      5) weve ended up here by making backroom legislation for cash favours to a preffered private entity (and one that has highly questionable links to the ruling party) – is that the mark of a modern democracy or something much shadier?

      6) if its such a good business why is the govt involved in the first place? Especially a :market forces: govt?

      Your free to like the deal – thats you call, but it would help if you got your head around why others think its wrong – its way more than just “pokies = bad”

  2. Does bring one question to mind about Mr Key. Did he make all his money by insider trading, as he seems quite bad at being a deal maker?

    • He can be a shocking deal maker, as long as he personally profits. He only seems bad if you consider that he’s doing deals on behalf of the people of the country. He’s not. The people on whose behalf he spins, lies and lubes us up do very well, thank you very much. The people of the country exist only as separate classes, who have contradictory interests. He serves that part that he feels loyalty to.

  3. Did you notice the good old exaggerate the number of new pokies agreed to (the media kept saying 500 this morning on Breakfast), and then when it comes in at “only” 230 everyone heaves a sigh of relief and it’s all ok now? John Key is a master of this tactic, and it seems to work every time.
    This casino deal is as dodgy as it comes. I wonder where NZ will find its place on the most/least corrupted countries survey next time?

  4. This charmless scheme also appears to propose the demolition of two significant examples of Auckland’s scant remaining built heritage: the Albion hotel and Roy Alston Lippincott’s 1931 Berlei building. You’re not wrong about the stench of corruption that hangs over this utterly egregious proposal.

  5. There is so much that is wrong with this deal aside from the gambling thing.
    The govt is giving the casino the land for the convention centre gratis, so it is wrong to say NZ is getting the convention center for free.
    Anyone who thinks convention centers are good for the economy, should take a stroll thru amerika’s rust belt where just about every town of more than 57 has built one of these fuckers that sit empty until some dickhead pol throws good money after bad by subsidising a convention or 3. These subsidies have to be paid for somehow so state schools get closed & amalgamated to cover the cost.

    Key is expecting this & knows that eventually peeps will be up in arms about the deal, so he has put it outside the reach of future governments to change – no matter what the voters think – by promising to pay for any govt actions that could be deemed to have cost SkyCity (on anything not just the convention center you know,-until 2048).

    I wanna know exactly how much Key a& other pols have invested in SkyCity thru their blind trusts.
    NZ’s corrupt stock market has long been dominated (in terms of total capitalisation) by the ‘Big Three’ Telecom, Fletcher Construction, & SkyCity.
    Since taking office in 2009 Key has given over $1 billlion to Telecom legislating to recreate their network monopoly, given Fletcher’s the monopoly on the Christchurch rebuild, and now he is entrenching SkyCity as the primary (possibly sole) recipient of the gambling dollar for the next 35 years.
    This corruption, IE the benefit from passing legislation; is so overarching that every politician who holds either a stock portfolio, or who has an investment in a ‘vehicle’ which does own NZSE shares, has a direct conflict of interest and should not be allowed to vote on the SkyCity bill or any other legislation involving them, Telecom or Fletchers.

  6. Bent over backwards! More like bent over forward! I wonder he didn’t give them the Lotto concession as well. Problem gambling groups are certainly rooted.

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