KEY POINTS:
In three years, Patrick Jackson gambled - and lost - $3.8 million on the pokies at Auckland's SkyCity casino. Jackson won two luxury motor vehicles, which he cashed in, and a $69,000 jackpot, but he squandered it all on a gambling addiction that eventually cost him everything.
Much of the money wasn't his: Jackson had stolen it from his employer, the taxpayer-funded Refugees as Survivors Trust. The authorities eventually caught up with him, and in December he was convicted and jailed for three years and nine months for misappropriating $745,000 from the trust - $660,000 of which he gambled away at SkyCity.
An Internal Affairs inquiry, released to the Herald on Sunday under the Official Information Act, has revealed that while the casino was not technically in breach of the Gambling Act it was remiss in not identifying Jackson as a problem gambler. Internal Affairs has asked for a formal response from SkyCity to its concerns.
The report found that SkyCity's reluctance to go beyond the minimum requirements of its problem gambling policy was of concern.
Jackson, 60, had spent up to 14 hours at a time gambling at the casino, and once left the premises so tired he was involved in a car accident on the way home. When he won vehicles at the casino, he claimed he was "treated like royalty". There was a ceremony, he had his photograph taken, and he was invited to have dinner with casino staff.
His turnover on the pokies was $3.8 million, and he spent a further $32,670 on table games.
The Problem Gambling Foundation has strongly criticised Sky City's handling of the case, saying the casino should have seen the telltale signs of Jackson's gambling addiction.
SkyCity has three strategies to deal with problem gambling - warning signs on the casino floor, third-party notifications and "self-exclusion processes". However, Internal Affairs has taken issue over the signs, saying they should also include warnings about people who spend long periods of time in the casino and those who don't interact with other patrons - both indicators of problem gambling.
Internal Affairs has also asked why the casino did not use its sophisticated electronic player tracking systems, which record how much customers spend, to identify problem gamblers.
Jackson held a SkyCity loyalty card and over three years was upgraded from a basic action card member to a platinum VIP member. These upgrades are based primarily on how much a customer spends. Jackson was such a good customer he was also given free rugby tickets and accommodation at the SkyCity Grand Hotel.
Internal Affairs said SkyCity needed to develop a robust and systematic process for analysing loyalty information to reduce problem gambling.
"If this had been in place players such as Mr Jackson may have been noticed well before the problem escalated to the extent it did," Internal Affairs said. Jackson agrees.
Last year he told the Herald on Sunday that SkyCity should have used the data it had collected on him to step in when it was clear he was gambling far beyond its means.
Internal Affairs' final concern relates to SkyCity's need to "take greater responsibility" when people phoned in identifying a problem gambler.
SkyCity did receive a call about Jackson in 2005, but there was dispute over whether the call should have been treated as official notification that Jackson had gambling issues.
Internal Affairs has recommended there be further training for casino staff on how to deal with calls from the public about problem gamblers.
The inquiry was only the second of its kind under new legislation requiring casinos to identify and protect problem gamblers, and ban them.
Last year the Dunedin Casino was forced to close its doors for two days for failing to take adequate action over a problem gambler. The Gambling Commission suspended the casino's licence after it was found to have allowed a woman to gamble $6.6m over three years.
SkyCity spokesman Peter Treacy said the Jackson case had been a difficult one.
The Internal Affairs report had confirmed Jackson did not display behaviour consistent with problem gambling, he said. "If Jackson had identified himself, or if we had identified his behaviour as being consistent with problem gambling, he would have been immediately barred from the casino."
SkyCity was now reviewing the report, he said, and looked forward to working with Internal Affairs and the Gambling Commission to enhance its host responsibility programme.
