Wellington man hits jackpot ... again

File photo / Getty Images

A Wellington man has hit the jackpot after the Internal Affairs Department found Auckland's SkyCity Casino had no grounds to withhold his $60,000 win.

Sothea Sinn, 28, voluntarily banned himself from gambling in 2004 for two years.

He believed the ban had expired when he went to collect the $60,000 he'd won playing the card game Caribbean Stud last August.

The casino and internal affairs gambling inspectors initially agreed he should not be paid because of the ban and said he had not completed six counselling sessions, which was part of the criteria to re-enter the casino.

However, an Internal Affairs investigation has found no reason under the Gambling Act for the casino to refuse to pay Mr Sinn, the department's December newsletter, Gambits, said.

The department had "reconsidered the issue as one involving the integrity of gambling" and advised SkyCity that Mr Sinn had not breached the Gambling Act as his ban had expired.

It also said alleged breaches of civil law had no impact on the Gambling Act.

The department said it was a matter between SkyCity and Mr Sinn as to whether the casino paid out.

However SkyCity lawyer Peter Treacy today said the casino had paid Mr Sinn his winnings despite reservations.

"Our policies, we believe, are still absolutely right. The whole thrust of them is to protect those few people who shouldn't be there from themselves...

"What's disappointing is that the department now doesn't seem to share our view of what the consequences of re-entry and breach of conditions should be," he told Radio New Zealand.

SkyCity's legal advice said Mr Sinn was in contravention of the Gambling Act but Internal Affairs now disagreed, he said.

"Frankly, the only way ever to find out is to go to court and nobody particularly wants to go to court over this."

SkyCity planned to lobby the department and the Government to "remove any doubt" as to the conditions of reentry into casinos.

It hoped to see the Government bring in regulations to give some "legal teeth" to SkyCity's efforts to keep problem gamblers out of the casino, he said.

- NZPA