AAP
Gambling giant Tabcorp Holdings has signalled even greater investment in Queensland casinos, saying it wants to lure some of rival Crown Ltd's high-rolling VIP players.
Tabcorp on Monday announced a demerger of its casinos operations from its
The company also said it would spend $175 million on upgrading its Jupiters casino on the Gold Coast to create an international entertainment and resort destination.
The upgrade will include refurbishment of the main gaming floor, a new private gaming room, dedicated gaming areas for VIP customers, new restaurants and bars, a nightlife venue, a refurbishment of the pool area and a new spa.
Construction is expected to start in the middle of calendar year 2011 and be completed in 2014.
Tabcorp also said it was in talks with the Queensland government on further expansion of its Gold Coast, Brisbane and Townsville casinos, including the construction of one or two new hotels.
Tabcorp already is engaged in a $960 million expansion of its Star City casino in Sydney, which includes a $100 million licence fee to the NSW government.
Tabcorp chief executive Elmer Funke Kupper said Asian VIP gamblers visiting Australia would "naturally gravitate" to the Gold Coast and Sydney.
Yet Crown Ltd, which operates the Crown casino in Melbourne and the Burswood casino in Perth, had more than 80 per cent of the VIP market.
"If you look at the geography, at the size of Australia, that is not the right mix," Mr Funke Kupper said.
"Therefore, we are very confident that by investing in Sydney and the Gold Coast, we can grow the market by creating destinations that people might prefer over Melbourne.
"Secondly, we'd like to correct the market share equation where I think we're underdoing it."
Mr Funke Kupper said that given the far greater size of Melbourne and Sydney and the large number of tourist arrivals, casinos in those two cities would always be much bigger than casinos in Queensland.
He said Queensland was a "stretched out" market along several thousand kilometres of coastline and more suited to a number of very strong local casinos.
Tabcorp was happy with its positioning of casinos at the Gold Coast and in Brisbane and Townsville but needed to grow the market.
"We're flagging that we continue to be working with, and discussing very constructively with, the Queensland government on the next round of possibilities," Mr Funke Kupper said.
"Now that's a much bigger investment, that is a much bigger decision.
"If it were to be a possibility, then the casinos business will undertake that investment whenever that is - it could be 12 to 18 months out, or further out."
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