The Chief Executive Officer of one of the largest Australian gaming and entertainment companies, the Star Entertainment Group – Matt Bekier – projected that the company’s Broadbeach site is to have enormous success in case that the Gold Coast does not allow another casino to be built there.
Unfortunately, Mr. Bekier’s dream of establishing a monopoly in the region may be destroyed, as the Mayor of the Gold Coast Tom Tate has publicly revealed a controversial proposal for a second casino site in central Southport. The local Government has announced that the possibility for a second casino licence for the Gold Coast remains available in spite of the fact that the integrated casino resort of ASF Consortium at The Spit had been terminated earlier.
Star Entertainment in Pursue of Gold Coast Casino Monopoly
Star Entertainment’s CEO Mr. Bekier revealed on a recent visit at the region, that the operator is very close to opening up the six-star hotel tower at Broadbeach after expanding some of the available options there. He further expressed his hopes that another hotel could be developed by the brand over the next three years.
A multi-billion mega integrated resort located at the Queens Wharf in Brisbane has been in construction for some time now. Star Entertainment has earlier revealed that the Gold Coast venue was only “the companion piece” to the $3-billion project.
Mr. Bekier commented that if a second casino owner is granted with a casino operating license in the region, that would “saturate” the market, but clubs and pubs on the Gold Coast would be the ones suffering the major negative effects of such a decision. Still, he shared that Star Entertainment would leave the State Government to work the situation out, hoping for the best decision to be made.
When it comes to the company’s plans in the long term, Star Entertainment was making some plans for an integrated resort project in order to take advantage of the fact that the Gold Coast is a popular tourist destination.
The operator is especially targeting Chinese tourists, as according to a recent research the middle class in China would increase by 850 million in the period from 2009 to 2025. At the time when the results of the survey were announced, Star Entertainment’s CEO shared that middle-class people travel more, and by this explained the hopes put by the company on Chinese tourists. He further shared that local customers are spending a relatively small amount on entertainment activities in comparison to citizens of European countries.
Unfortunately for the gambling operator, Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate shared that in his opinion the city was big enough for for two casinos. Mayor Tate further explained that imposing a monopoly is everything but an action taken in the best interest of the city. According to him, it would be Star Entertainment’s wish to be ahead of any competition before a second casino comes at the Gold Coast.
How about the ASF Group Gold Coast Casino Saga?
At the beginning of August, the company standing behind a Gold Coast casino project worth $3 billion, ASF Consortium, revealed that could take legal action against the Palaszczuk Government that unexpectedly eliminated it from the project. At the time when the company revealed its plans to sue the local Government, its Director Louis Chien shared that ASF Consortium had been misled by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who suspended plans of the multi-billion casino site.
Three years ago, the local Government gave the Chinese-backed company the green light to develop The Spit. Recently, it has unexpectedly eliminated the ASF Consortium from the proposed Gold Casino plans, but at the same time did not fully denied the possibility for a new development contract in terms of The Spit.
The matter of a second Gold Coast casino venue has been standing for quite some time now. With the ASF Group being scraped from The Spit project and the Star Entertainment calling for establishing a monopoly, the local Government has been put under some tension lately. It has neither fully denied the possibility of allowing such a project, nor affirming it, so it remains to be seen how things would work out in the months to come.
- Author
Daniel Williams
