KEY POINTS:
National frontbencher Gerry Brownlee has quit as a director of a casino consulting company so he is free to speak out without claims of a conflict of interest.
Mr Brownlee said he had been a director of New Zealand Casino Services for about six weeks, alongside Christchurch Casino's former chief executive Stephen Lyttelton and former gaming manager Peter Arbuckle.
The pair quit the casino last month citing concerns for their safety, prize-draw fixing, financial irregularities and loan sharking as reasons.
Internal Affairs has launched an inquiry into the casino's operations, but the casino's board says it has followed the law and the two managers have failed to substantiate their claims.
Mr Brownlee today said New Zealand Casino Services had been set up to look at prospective business opportunities in the casino industry. One line of its business was to have been consulting.
But he said it hadn't yet started trading and he had decided to quit so he was free to comment on the controversy surrounding Christchurch Casino without any allegations of a conflict.
Mr Brownlee, the MP for Christchurch's Ilam electorate, said he was interested in the outcome of the Internal Affairs investigation.
"I'm interested to know whether they are investigating their own monitoring of the casino or the casino itself and that won't be apparent until their report's released," he said.
"I'll want to comment on that, but I don't want to be doing it from where I might be seen as a participant in the industry after one month of having my name on the company registry which was probably fairly stupid on my part."
The claims of dodgy dealings at Christchurch Casino come amid broader concerns about the state of New Zealand's casino industry.
Auckland's Sky City Casino has admitted having problems with loan sharks and a staff union has said cost-cutting measures such as cuts to security guards and removing transport for staff working the overnight shift have undermined staff safety.
The Problem Gambling Foundation has called for a parliamentary inquiry into the state of the industry.
The Department of Internal Affairs has said it would wait for the findings of its investigation in Christchurch before deciding whether there were implications for other casinos.
- NZPA
