Earthquake Damaged Christchurch Casino in New Zealand Reopens

Christchurch Casino in New Zealand has reopened its doors with a bang, hoping to quickly catch up to its pre-earthquake profit levels. The town of Christchurch was badly hit by a devastating earthquake in February, destroying half the town and bankrupting multiple businesses.

According to the gambling news in New Zealand, the casino was and hopes to remain one of the most important visitor’s attractions of the town.

Christchurch Casino employs over 500 staff and operates in full compliance of New Zealand gambling laws. Some of the employees doubted that the establishment will operate again, and were given a choice of either unpaid leave until better times or redundancy.

366 staff opted to stay, while 140 chose redundancy. Analiza Burgos, one of the dealers lingered on and had the following to say: “I knew that the casino would reopen, and this is the moment I’ve been waiting for.”

Brett Anderson, casino’s CEO, commented that he respects the choices of some staff to leave. He added that employees who took the redundancy package preferred a lump sum to ease the extremely difficult financial situation caused by the quake or even to leave the country in search of a safer place.

He recalls the day of the earthquake and said that over 400 people were on the casino’s premises when it hit. However no one suffered serious injuries and there was little structural damage.

During the months following the quake, casino management was worried that the customer base would switch to one of many foreign-based online casinos in New Zealand. The next weeks should show just how many of the casinos patrons are lost to the realm of online gambling.