SkyCity can keep cash ticketing

SkyCity Entertainment can keep using a ticketing system that gets around note acceptor limits, says the Department of Internal Affairs.

A Government ban prevents gaming machines accepting bank notes higher than $20 in an attempt to curb problem gambling.

The SkyCity ticketing system, installed in 2004 and used for around 300 gaming machines in Auckland, allows the pre-purchase of tickets worth up to $500.

The system was approved under the previous regulator, the Casino Control Authority, and some feared the Government might seek to stop the company using it.

But the department's interim position paper on cashless technology released late last week said the risks associated with the technologies currently used "are not so great that we would intervene to prohibit them at this stage".

It said it was unlikely similar systems would be permitted under the Gambling Act.

The department had not adopted a standard on cashless gambling and would review the interim position paper by the end of the 2007-2008 financial year.

Forsyth Barr senior equity analyst Jeremy Simpson said the document was a "small positive" for SkyCity.

A SkyCity spokeswoman said the company's "preliminary view" was the paper's conclusions were as expected.

It would have no effect on business, she said.

Shares in SkyCity closed up 10c on Friday at $5.35.