Echo Entertainment chairman John O’Neill insists he is relaxed about James Packer opening a rival casino within a proposed $1 billion six-star resort in Sydney.
Just hours after news breaking that Mr Packer’s development proposal had cleared its first hurdle with the NSW government, Mr O’Neill was playing down the potential threat to Echo’s Sydney flagship casino, The Star.
NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell on Thursday confirmed the proposal for the resort at Barangaroo by Mr Packer’s rival gaming business Crown had reached the second stage of the approvals process.
While there are numerous more steps to follow before a final decision is made, if approved it would mean The Star would face formidable competition when its exclusive casino licence for Sydney expires in 2019.
But Mr O’Neill declared he was “pretty relaxed, actually” about the possibility of a new casino on Sydney Harbour.
“Seven years is a long time. You worry about the things you can control,” he told reporters on the Gold Coast after Echo’s annual general meeting.
“When the day arrives that a second casino becomes operational in Sydney, probably the earliest it’s going to open its doors is 2020.
“I’m not lying awake at night worrying about what hypothetically might occur in eight years time.”
Earlier, Mr O’Neill told shareholders that laws enabling a second casino licence in Sydney would have to pass both houses of the NSW Parliament.
He failed to mention, however, how the state Labor opposition had already signalled bipartisan support to enable a Crown VIP casino without poker machines at Barangaroo.
Mr O’Neill also rejected claims by shareholder activist Stephen Mayne that he wasn’t willing to fight Mr Packer’s proposal to protect the interests of Echo’s shareholders and The Star’s exclusive Sydney licence.
He said he had only ever had one meeting with Mr Packer, whose Crown group is seeking regulatory approval to increase its 10 per cent stake in Echo to up to 25 per cent.
“You want to see blood on the floor, you want to see hostility, and you want to see theatre,” Mr O’Neill replied.
“We’re not going to start firing off scud missiles until such time as we need to.”
Mr O’Neill said he believed that states, including NSW, should stick to having just one casino in every major city.
Such a policy was “the right one to create the platform for truly distinctive developments that safeguard responsible gambling and provide a growing stream of tax revenue to governments as well as adequate returns for shareholders”.
Meanwhile, Echo’s total gross revenues for the first 16 weeks of the financial year were 12.9 per cent higher compared to a year ago.
A 27.5 per cent rise in revenues at The Star helped offset weaker revenues at its Queensland operations, which include the Treasury Hotel and Casino in Brisbane and Jupiters on the Gold Coast.
Echo plans to spend $1.3 billion on a possible new casino in Brisbane and refurbishing Jupiters on the Gold Coast.
Mr O’Neill said he had met with Queensland government ministers last week to discuss the a second casino in central Brisbane.
