Sensational-Adelaide.com

Dog wrote:While this is good news for construction workers, and a time when we will need more work, I can't see any Adelaide Casino attracting OS high rollers, maybe some internationals skipping off from conferences at the convention centre but I suspect it will really just be another drain on local punters.

Every local $ spent in the casino is a $ not spent in local shops and businesses.

Every Government $ spent to co-invest or $ forgone in royalties to get this thing build is a $ not spent on building more important investments.

A co-investment in another anther SAMRI, perhaps to house more research equipment or a medical school, would draw more real OS $, & bright people, students and researchers to SA and encourage real jobs. As well as help improve the lives of people living in Adelaide.





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+1

I was under the impression that the vast bulk of the extension was purely FOR high rollers and cashed up international tourists?

A six star hotel and V.I.P. facilities for the minted is unlikely to cause too many dramas for your typical suburban problem gambler - I wouldn't have thought the general public would even be able to access these facilities?


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Matt wrote:I was under the impression that the vast bulk of the extension was purely FOR high rollers and cashed up international tourists?

A six star hotel and V.I.P. facilities for the minted is unlikely to cause too many dramas for your typical suburban problem gambler - I wouldn't have thought the general public would even be able to access these facilities?


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Matt ... you're absolutely right the extension is predominantly aimed at grabbing a slice of the burgeoning Asian high roller market currently dominated by Crown Melbourne (in Australia at least).

Given the rise of middle and upper class Chinese (Chinese are the biggest gamblers in the world) this is likely to be growth market for a very long time.

James Packer isn't stupid ... he saw this trend a long time ago hence the reason why he's spent and planning to spend billions on Crown Macau, Crown Perth and now Crown Sydney.

Matt wrote:I was under the impression that the vast bulk of the extension was purely FOR high rollers and cashed up international tourists?

A six star hotel and V.I.P. facilities for the minted is unlikely to cause too many dramas for your typical suburban problem gambler - I wouldn't have thought the general public would even be able to access these facilities?


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We will see in time about these High rollers.
I can remember when the casino first opened you had to wear a tie just to get in, now you can be as "high" as you like and as long as you don't throw up on anyone important they are happy to take your money. I guess I am in Nick Xenophon's camp when it comes to gambling and just think priorities could be directed elsewhere. I would rather take $50k a year off the same wealthy Chinese businessman to house and educate his kids at Adelaide uni each year than rip him off in the casino.


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The casino gives an experience, just handing money over doesn't.

Dog wrote: I would rather take $50k a year off the same wealthy Chinese businessman to house and educate his kids at Adelaide uni each year than rip him off in the casino.

What, we just walk up to a Chinese buisnessman and say "hand over $50k for our under privelidged...?" The Chinese love to gamble, and that is the point. If we can make some revenue from it as well, and they have the occaisional big win, all good. Nick Xenephon is a great guy, and honest politician, but sometimes his focus clouds him from the big picture...like the number of people the gambling industry employs and the amount of revenue it generates.

claybro wrote:

Dog wrote: I would rather take $50k a year off the same wealthy Chinese businessman to house and educate his kids at Adelaide uni each year than rip him off in the casino.

What, we just walk up to a Chinese buisnessman and say "hand over $50k for our under privelidged...?" The Chinese love to gamble, and that is the point. If we can make some revenue from it as well, and they have the occaisional big win, all good. Nick Xenephon is a great guy, and honest politician, but sometimes his focus clouds him from the big picture...like the number of people the gambling industry employs and the amount of revenue it generates.

claybro (what underprivileged kids are you on about? I am talking about educating wealthy Chinese kids) while it would appear some Chinese may like to gamble they also like to educate their children even more, the proof is there are thousands of Chinese students already here. All paying full uni fees and accommodation.
SA income from Chinese students is already $328m per year I suggest this dwarfs "high rollers" and a better investment for SA.
I would also suggest while some may enjoy gambling they don't send their own kids to Macau for education they prefer a nice quite, safe, uni city like Adelaide.




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Dog wrote:

claybro wrote:

Dog wrote: I would rather take $50k a year off the same wealthy Chinese businessman to house and educate his kids at Adelaide uni each year than rip him off in the casino.

What, we just walk up to a Chinese buisnessman and say "hand over $50k for our under privelidged...?" The Chinese love to gamble, and that is the point. If we can make some revenue from it as well, and they have the occaisional big win, all good. Nick Xenephon is a great guy, and honest politician, but sometimes his focus clouds him from the big picture...like the number of people the gambling industry employs and the amount of revenue it generates.

claybro (what underprivileged kids are you on about? I am talking about educating wealthy Chinese kids) while it would appear some Chinese may like to gamble they also like to educate their children even more, the proof is there are thousands of Chinese students already hear. All paying full uni fees and accommodation.
SA income from Chinese students is already $328m per year I suggest this dwarfs "high rollers" and a better investment for SA.
I would also suggest while some may enjoy gambling they don't send their own kids to Macau for education they prefer a nice quite, safe, uni city like Adelaide.




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Why not capture it all? There is 1b people there, hell if it would help I'd start sign posting streets in Chinese.

Currently in China gambling and other "vices" including drugs and prostitution are outlawed on the mainland. But tolerated in the "special administrative region" of Macau.
There has been much discussion in China about the forgone tax revenue that could be collected if gambling were legalised on the mainland.
So at the stroke of a pen High rollers could stay at home and big players like Packer my find 17% annual growth dries up overnight and his new Sydney casino a white elephant needed to filled with local mums and dads.
I think students will keep coming to Adelaide as long as we provide an excellent educational experience, good qualifications, hospitality and safety. All the good things that make Adelaide a great place.

Anyway enough said, I am obviously in Nick Xenophon's boat and anti gambling whether it's ripping off local mums or dads or our northern neighbours. A principle is a principle. If it does get build at least I hope it's of outstanding Architectural merit and more hotel than gaming tables.


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Dog international education is Australia's 3rd biggest export . But policies the Labour Gov brought about under Julia Gillard for a "sustainable Australia" has now made Australia a less attractive place for international students. They already pay top uni fee's upfront before semester with no tax funded government support. So living cost propping up our economy is purely their savings. But now immigration has made it so difficult for them to get PR or working visa's and prosper here that they are going elsewhere to study. If they have paid top dollar and succeed in their eduction here wouldn't it be wiser to entice them to stay ?? Their skills are only going to add the economy and build further opportunity and diversity within Australia. Some countries such as Germany have free tuition for locals and international students. They then make the PR easy an process and encourage the students to stay in the country to reinvest with their skills. USA may have high tuition fee's but once graduated they also encourage international students to stay on and invest their skills into their workforce.

serca wrote:Dog international education is Australia's 3rd biggest export . But policies the Labour Gov brought about under Julia Gillard for a "sustainable Australia" has now made Australia a less attractive place for international students. They already pay top uni fee's upfront before semester with no tax funded government support. So living cost propping up our economy is purely their savings. But now immigration has made it so difficult for them to get PR or working visa's and prosper here that they are going elsewhere to study. If they have paid top dollar and succeed in their eduction here wouldn't it be wiser to entice them to stay ?? Their skills are only going to add the economy and build further opportunity and diversity within Australia. Some countries such as Germany have free tuition for locals and international students. They then make the PR easy an process and encourage the students to stay in the country to reinvest with their skills. USA may have high tuition fee's but once graduated they also encourage international students to stay on and invest their skills into their workforce.

Perhaps this should be in federal politics as it's way off the casino project but can't let this slip. It was the Howard era saw the biggest migrant inflow doubling the rate of "education migrants" in 2005/06 but vast majority were not at Uni's but were studying at hundreds of private bogus educational institutions, gaining dubious qualifications. They were not being employed in high tech degree positions but as kitchen hands, taxi drivers, and other low skilled positions, while being tough on refugees, Howard was filling the country with low skilled foreign workers basically if you did an English course, passed the Howard "Australian"test you were in.
Howard was no political amateur I believe this was his attempt to keep a lid on wages and break union bargaining power and filling the streets and bus stops with obvious foreigners only help Howard's battlers feel they were being overrun by refugees all willing to take old ladies seats on the bus an throw there own babies in to the sea to get here.

When the GFC struck it was the labor government left to bail out thousands of these students from failed private education providers who had taken money but not given qualifications. Must have been a today to night story every week!

Like Howard initially Rudd was a big Australia man as well but the GFC hit and Australians rightly demanded we stop importing low skilled workers when locals were under employed.

Gillard introduced a proper system for foreign students, real cost, real qualifications at accredited uni's.
Besides bogus qualifications the biggest threats to our education export industry was not Gillard but the widely internationally reported Cronnula riots, the spate of attackers on Indian students in Melbourne, the high $A and today our obvious paranoia about refugees and diplomatically upsetting our Chinese and Indonesian neighbours.

Bogus education providers in cohorts with immigration agents were the real people smugglers of the Howard era.

Anyway back to the casino I was only raising my view that the $328m a year earned in SA from international Chinese students was a better bet than casino high rollers. Especially when the Chinese government could at any time lift their ban on mainland gambling to raise tax, basically killing the OS gambling industry with a stroke of the pen.

But if we must be build one I hope it of architectural merit and more a 7 star hotel than casino so latest if the wheels fall of the High Roller market we are left with a good hotel.


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Casino's are not the problem, pubs with pokies are....

"Hajek Plaza is a cherished public cultural precinct that should be enjoyed by all South Australians."

Is she taking the piss? Cherished?


Debate continues over future of Hajek Plaza between Parliament House and Festival Centre

WHAT to do with the plaza between Parliament House and the Festival Centre continues to be a polarising debate as the Liberals want it to remain an arts space but the government progresses with plans for the site with a major property developer.

The government rezoned the riverbank west of King William St to allow for office, apartment and hotel developments up to 13 storeys behind Parliament House and an expanded casino including what is now Hajek Plaza, known for its colourful block sculptures.

Liberal MP for Adelaide Rachel Sanderson said the space must be kept as a cultural precinct and that the public and Festival Centre should be consulted specifically on the future use of that site.

"Hajek Plaza is a cherished public cultural precinct that should be enjoyed by all South Australians. A 13-storey office tower is not the right use of the space...it should definitely be a cultural area accessible by the public," she said.

"I think the whole area needs to be redone and the carpark has to be expanded to take pressure off of North Adelaide when there are events at Adelaide Oval but I think it should be done in consultation with the Festival Centre and the public."

Following a tender process Walker Corp won exclusive rights to develop a plan for the site.

The Festival Centre recently joined Adelaide City Council, the Property Council, the Conservation Council and the Adelaide Park Lands Preservation Association in opposing any large-scale office and residential developments on the plaza.

Urban Development Minister Tom Koutsantonis said the government was now in negotiations with Walker Corp which focus on the redevelopment of the car park.

"It is inappropriate to comment further on the details of these ongoing negotiations," he said when asked about the government's plans for the site.

Mr Koutsantonis said the government had undertaken extensive consultation on the Riverbank Precinct which showed great support for revitalising the area.

"Renewal SA received more than 1300 responses during this consultation, with 82.9 per cent of survey respondents supporting the redevelopment of the core entertainment precinct, including Hajek Plaza," he said.

"The Liberals failed to put in their own submission during this consultation period. They didn't want a redeveloped Adelaide Oval, they didn't want a footbridge across the River Torrens and they clearly don't want to contribute to the revitalisation of the Riverbank Precinct."

This architecture/structure shows the worst of the 70s/80s and the sooner it's demolished the better. Sanderson is so out of touch it's worrying. I would love to see a poll on how many people "cherish" it! Maybe keep some of its pieces in the museum to remember the era but that's it.

how good is he wrote:This architecture/structure shows the worst of the 70s/80s and the sooner it's demolished the better. Sanderson is so out of touch it's worrying. I would love to see a poll on how many people "cherish" it! Maybe keep some of its pieces in the museum to remember the era but that's it.

Agreed, but to replace it with another mid level non descript office building, ala the Riverside Centre is no great improvement IMO. Something iconic by all means, but 13 stories - come on, what is the point, there are hundreds of CBD sites that can cater for that.