Casino Canberra — Attraction in District of Canberra Central

Casino Canberra (or Canberra Casino) is a casino located in the Central Business District of Canberra, the capital city of Australia. It was the first legal casino to open in the Australian Capital Territory, built on land excised from Glebe Park under a 99-year lease agreement between the casino licensee and the territory government. It is small in comparison with other casinos in Australia and does not incorporate any hotel accommodation, theatres, auditoriums or retail stores. It is the only casino in Australia not licensed to operate poker machines. There are 39 gaming tables where blackjack, roulette, baccarat and other games are played. The casino also has a poker lounge and sports lounge with TAB facilities.

Following permission from the Federal Government to issue a casino licence and despite strong opposition from Dr Hector Kinloch of the Residents Rally, Casinos Austria International was selected by the ACT Government as the preferred operator on 31 January 1992. A subsidiary company, Casino Canberra Limited was formed for this purpose. In exchange for the licence, Casinos Austria paid $19 million up front for lease of the land and an annual $500,000 licensing fee. A temporary casino began operation on 14 November 1992 at the National Convention Centre. The permanent casino opened on 29 July 1994. Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke and the ACT Chief Minister Rosemary Follett were among the guests at the large opening party hosted by Dr Leo Walner, then head of Casinos Austria. Bob Hawke was the winner of the golden roulette ball that was used for the first spin of the roulette wheel in the temporary casino.

The Aquis Group controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Tony Fung acquired the casino in 2014

Casino Canberra holds the only licence to operate gambling tables in the Australian Capital Territory. Unlike other Australian casinos, it cannot operate poker machines. The casino has previously tried unsuccessfully to lobby the territory government to remove restrictions that prevent it from installing poker machines. These attempts have failed, in part due to concerns from Canberra's clubs, which fear loss of revenue from their own poker machines. Amendments to the Casino Control Act (2006) which would allow the casino to operate poker machines have been unsuccessfully moved in the legislative assembly on two occasions. In March 2013, it was reported by The Canberra Times, amid concerns about its ongoing viability, that the casino was willing to hand back land to the government that would allow the National Convention Centre to be expanded, and pay upfront fees in exchange for licensing rights for 200 machines.

In May 2016, following submission of a proposal to massively redevelop the Casino site in exchange for the right to possess 500 poker machine licences, an in-principal agreement was reached with the Chief Minister Andrew Barr. The agreement centred on the possible use of 200 poker machines but only after redevelopment had been completed and only if the poker machine licences were purchased from owners of existing machines under the poker...

I've always tried to remain upbeat, positive and even supportive, after all it is all Canberra has. I was really looking forward to the new owner coming on board a couple of years back now. The new owner and staff did not do their research on the capital city of Australia and its demographic. They have no clue, and no interest in finding out. The skills of the majority of dealers is chronic and most of them wouldn't get a job at any other casino. They are slow, inaccurate, sarcastic and disinterested and on occasions just plain rude. They always complain about being short staffed. And I mean always. I've been listening to this excuse for twenty years. They don't open the basic of tables that other casinos have, when patrons want to play other games and yet they don't open the games they do offer, sometimes leaving them closed for up to seven hours. Don't get me started on the poor communication between gaming, customer service, marketing and the pit bosses. One weekend people arrived for a poker tournament that the staff knew nothing about. They had to scurry around like a bunch of fools to get ready for it. The floor staff didn't know what was or wasn't the prize money or what was on the website. The players actually knew more than the staff. The loyalty program is a joke. The food at the restaurant is over priced and average at best. They use terms like 'elite' and 'premium' in their marketing which is laughable. It is far from that. They just don't make the grade on any front. They do nothing special for Australia Day or Anzac Day which is appalling. There is no table service unless its Friday or Saturday night. Customer service is not important to...

Casino is a bit of a misnomer. It's basically a giant rec room. Continuous shuffle blackjack is another disappointment. The blackjack dealers other than Vijay are about as warm as jumping off an iceberg in Antartica. Whether you win or lose they are losers. Half the time you say something to them, thry dont even respond, question or not. It's like they hire rain man to be the dealer instead of the player.

Hospitality in every facet of service industries pretty much sucks in this whole country, but when you're spending a lot of money and losing, it's exceptionally brutal to have this expressionless robot snatching up your chips faster than you can even process what cards you had.

Had an experience the other day where thry were trying to rush my action on the last dealt hand of the night (prob debated for 20 seconds). By the time i cashed out my $2k+ winnings it was 4:02. They closed at 4. I wanted to piss on the carpet, especially when one of the dealers was standing there watching and actually said "it's ok, we're gonna win it all back.

Almost every one of these people would be fired in a week in Vegas. Spiteful, unaccommodating and just plain terrible this staff is, but im stuck here for a year so im just gonna raise hell at every appropriate instance until thry change or im banned. Here...