SkyCity Entertainment is weighing up a potential sale of its Adelaide Casino as part of a strategic review announced to investors on Thursday.
It comes after a series of anti-money laundering failures at the casino which resulted in tens of millions of dollars in fines and a ban on its lucrative junket operations.
In its full-year results release on Thursday, the company said it had engaged external advisers to commence a strategic review of its Adelaide Casino in the first half of 2026-27, before the end of this calendar year.
“Following a period of significant regulatory and operational change, SkyCity is commencing a strategic review of SkyCity Adelaide and will provide further updates as appropriate,” it told investors.
Strategic reviews typically include investigations into options to sell assets and businesses.
Asked what options would be considered as part of the review, SkyCity chief executive Jason Walbridge said: “SkyCity Entertainment Group reviews the strategic direction of all assets across the portfolio on a regular basis, and Adelaide is the current focus of that process.
“The review has only just commenced, and it would not be appropriate to comment on possible outcomes. We are well placed to be patient and deliberate about the path forward, and we expect to update the market during FY27.”
In its full-year results, the company recorded a $42.9m write-down to the value of its Adelaide Casino, reflecting “lower long-term forecasts” for the business.
Adelaide Casino generated $143m in gaming revenue in the 12 months to June, down 1.8 per cent on the previous year, but that was offset by a 3.9 per cent increase in food, beverage, hotel and other non-gaming revenue to $69.1m.
Underlying earnings in Adelaide were down 31.5 per cent to $19.5m due to higher operating expenses, including the cost of bringing in more staff to help with a remediation program to address anti-money laundering failures first uncovered in 2022.
Later court findings revealed the breaches allowed high-rollers from overseas to move millions through the venue over several years, resulting in a $67m Federal Court penalty in 2024.
SkyCity was later cleared by a separate independent review led by retired Supreme Court Judge Brian Martin as fit to hold South Australia’s only casino licence.
However the review identified serious shortcomings and slapped the casino operator with an additional $21m fine earlier this year.
SkyCity said on Thursday that it had now “settled in principle the outstanding major regulatory issues in Adelaide”.
“We are in the process of formalising our non-binding agreement with CBS (Consumer and Business Services), our regulator in South Australia, in relation to the review undertaken in response to the Martin independent report,” it said.
“As part of that agreement, we expect to pay a fine of $21m, payable in three equal instalments over two years.”
SkyCity has operated Adelaide’s only casino since 2000 under an exclusive licence with the state government running until 2035. It also owns the Eos Hotel, which opened in 2020, and leases 750 car-park spaces in the precinct on Adelaide’s river-front.
The wider SkyCity group, encompassing its Adelaide Casino as well as its casino operations in New Zealand, posted a 47 per cent drop in underlying profit to $NZ38m ($A31.7m), with underlying group revenue down slightly to $NZ822.7m ($A687.1m) due to lower gaming revenue.
SkyCity will not pay any dividend and did not provide 2026-27 earnings guidance “due to macroeconomic uncertainty”, but will provide a trading update at is annual meeting in October.
Shares in SkyCity were trading slightly higher on Thursday at 49.5c.