July 10, 2013
Peters wise to casino
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says New Zealanders have been lied to about casinos, and they are still being lied to.
A bill granting Sky City an extension to its Auckland casino licence and more gaming machines in exchange for building a convention centre comes up for first reading today.
The speaker has ruled it will be a conscience vote, but all National MPs have been instructed to support it.
Mr Peters says the casino already gets special treatment based on false premises.
"I remember when casinos first came here and you got the usual lying public relations exercise surrounding it, saying 'tourists come here and you're losing tourism opportunity.' Look, 96 percent of people who walk into a casino are locals, not foreigners. Privileged treatment for an in-the-main overseas-owned outfit to suck money out of the local economy, I’ll never support that," he says.
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