Following New Zealand’s success in eliminating Covid-19 from the country, many of the national restrictions were lifted, allowing many non-essential businesses to reopen again and welcome customers once more.
New Zealand’s land-based casinos were amongst them, with the country’s only 6 casinos reopening again. Regretfully, following the recent spike in cases in Auckland, a number of restrictions where reintroduced, shutting down non-essential businesses in the city and forcing the rest of the country to reintroduce certain measures for containment.
In this article, we will share with you the land-based casinos that are still open and what measures are in place for the protection of customers and employees, and which casinos are closed again and when they are expected to reopen again!
Casinos in Aukland
Since Aukland is at the heart of the second wave of infections in New Zealand, the city has been placed on Level 3 of the Alert system as of Wednesday 12th of August 2020. At level 3, all non-essential businesses that cannot provide delivery or pick up service, and employees cannot work from home, must close doors until the lockdown is downgraded to level 2. Since casino employees cannot work from home and customers must be on the premises, all gambling venues in the city had to close up. This means that Sky City Aukland Casino, the only land-based casino in the city, is currently closed to customers.
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Other parts of New Zealand
Following the cases in Aukland, the rest of the country was placed on alert level 2, which means that most business can continue to operate with open doors, but will have to reintroduce certain containment measures. At level 2 of the alert system, social distancing must be practised at all time, only a limited number of patrons are allowed in at any given time, customers are encouraged to sanitize their hands often and wear a mask if possible, while premises will be cleaned more often and through.
Most of the casinos outside Aukland are open for business with the exception of Wharf Casino in Queenstown which has remained closed. Below is a complete list of all operational land-based casinos in New Zealand:
- Christchurch Casino (Christchurch)
- Dunedin Casino (Dunedin)
- SkyCity Hamilton Casino (Hamilton)Â
- SkyCity Queenstown Casino (Queenstown)Â
Players interested in visiting one of these casinos should check before making the trip in case the situation changes and the alert level is upgraded to level 3, which will see all gambling venues closed for business once more. Furthermore, all customers are encouraged to follow the government issued guidelines for their safety and the employees.
Alternative casinos
If visiting the nearest casino is not feasible at the moment, you can try exploring some of the online casinos that have opened their doors to Kiwi players. Since online casinos are virtual casinos, there is no risk of contracting the virus and you can still enjoy your favourite casino games from the safety of your home. If you are interested we invite you to check out our reviews!