SkyCity Queenstown

SkyCity's Queenstown casino sits on the first floor above Beach Street in the middle of town, and it is small by design: a little over 80 gaming machines and eight table games. For a poker player the useful fact is a negative one. As the casino's own table-games listing stands, the floor offers Blackjack, Roulette and Baccarat and nothing else — no player-versus-player poker, and not even a house-banked poker variant of the kind SkyCity's Hamilton venue deals.

That makes Queenstown a place to play cards only in the loosest sense. A visitor who has come to town for poker has no live game here; the nearest venues that deal it are SkyCity Auckland in the north and Christchurch Casino, which runs the country's main tournament programme.

Entry is restricted to age 20 and over and carded play applies: a SHOW by SkyCity card or valid Premier Rewards card is required to play any game on the floor. Accepted identification for signing up is a current passport, a New Zealand or Australian driver's licence, a current New Zealand firearms licence, or an overseas national identity card with a signature or biometric data. The casino opens 11am to 1am from Sunday to Thursday and 11am to 2am on Friday and Saturday, closing for Christmas Day, Good Friday and between 3am and 1pm on Anzac Day.