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New Zealand gambling and entertainment giant SkyCity Entertainment is reporting losses of up to $1 million a day in profits from the latest closures under Level 4. Top online casino NZ sites are the only options for local players right now. The company declared such losses in presentation notes tabled before the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) together with its annual financial report.
The $1 million lost per day is part of earnings before interest, depreciation, and tax, and is a direct result of the latest closures and lockdown measures. SkyCity operates casinos and hotels across Hamilton, Queenstown, and Auckland.
Level 4 has been in place since August 17.
Pre-Lockdown Performance
The situation had been very different during the period July 1 and August 17, during which time SkyCity’s properties performed perfectly on par with the same period as reported in 2020. The gaming and entertainment giant said this week the losses only began incurring since the implementation of the latest lockdown level in the country.
The exact opposite situation has been witnessed by the business in Malta. An upswing in customer support has led to record revenue income from gaming activities for the very same period that’s seen business struggle in New Zealand. SkyCity’s Malta-based business activities are largely in the Online casino NZ industry – with roughly 45,000 active players to make up the local business portfolio.
All in all, SkyCity’s Malta online casino generated $9 million in profits for the financial year that drew to a close in 2021 – along with around $13.1 million in revenue. SkyCity launched its Malta online casino in August of 2019.
Tourism Activities Suffer
While SkyCity’s online casino NZ sites have performed above expectation, the company said its business activities and overall income have been severely affected by lockdown orders – as are its live entertainment and tourism business activities.
Particularly resilient to the pressures brought about by the global health crisis have been SkyCity’s pokie machines – both land-based as well as online. In fact, ever since the crisis hit, the company has witnessed a definite increase in online activities due to players no long being free to leave their homes and visit live casino venues whenever they so choose.
While SkyCity has benefited from government’s special wage subsidy scheme, its board of directors earlier this year decided to make re-payment of more than half of the money received. This was made possible by an improved performance during the year 2020/21.
SkyCity furthermore plans to repay at least a third of its JobKeeper grant to the Australian government by September.