Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the SkyCity Entertainment Group half year 2024 results call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the conference over to Michael Ahearne, CEO. Please go ahead.
Kia ora and welcome to SkyCity's presentation of its FY 2024 interim results. Firstly, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land upon which all our SkyCity sites sit: Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei in Auckland, Tainui in Hamilton, Ngāi Tahu in Queenstown, and the Kaurna people in Adelaide. Before I start, I wanted to highlight the company's announcements this morning regarding CEO transition. Callum Mallett, who you well know, is stepping in as interim CEO, and Julian Cook will become an executive chairman during the transition period. With me today in Auckland is Julie Amey, our Chief Financial Officer; Callum Mallett, our Chief Operating Officer, New Zealand; and Julian Cook, our board chair. We're going to speak to you about our FY 2024 interim results, as I signalled earlier this morning, referencing the results presentation pack.
The group's interim result reflects the resilience of our business in a challenging economic environment that we, and many other businesses across New Zealand and Australia, have been experiencing, with a reduction in spend levels as customers feel the impact of the cost of living pressures on their discretionary wallet. The impact of the economic climate, coupled with the complexities we've been navigating in our own operating environment, are reflected in our first-half result. You will see from the first-half results on page four that our reported results are down across all financial metrics. Our underlying results deliver group revenue of just under NZD 500 million, which is in line with the prior period. Underlying EBITDA is down 9.6% on the prior period at NZD 146.3 million.
You'll also see our balance sheet at the end of December remained healthy, net debt of NZD 500 million with a debt gearing ratio of 1.75 times. The board has reinforced their commitment to the group's dividend policy, with an interim dividend of NZD 5.25 per share declared for distribution. I want to call out a few specific areas of progress and priorities that have been a key focus for the business during the first half of 2024. We successfully navigated the dispute with Macquarie and settled the Auckland car park concession agreement termination at the end of January. The car park business is now integrated into our Auckland operations. We're making good progress on our NZICC and Horizon Hotel construction project, with the new hotel looking absolutely fantastic and on track for opening in April 2024.
We continue to expect the International Convention Center to open in 2025. We've also ramped up activity in relation to our New Zealand online gaming opportunity in anticipation of a clearer pathway to regulation. In addition, a multi-year gaming transformation project is underway across the group. This will deliver mandatory Carded Play at its core, helping to further enhance both our host responsibility and AML programs. I want to now spend some time talking about our regulatory matters and compliance activities, which continue to be a critical focus area for the group. You'll find further details on page seven and eight and more detail again in the appendix to the presentation. We are making significant progress on our compliance enhancement programs in both New Zealand and Australia.
We continue to reduce risk and complexity from our business, including changes in policies to reflect our lower risk tolerance and limiting the way in which customers can transact with us. Work is ongoing to enhance our systems, processes, and technology across both AML, CFT, and host responsibility areas. In New Zealand, we've been working with the DIA on the mandatory Carded Play opportunity and have made a commitment to implement this across our New Zealand properties by July 2025. This will give us a significant uplift in our ability to manage problem gambling risk and, as mentioned earlier, is the key focus of our multi-year gaming transformation program of work.
In relation to regulatory proceedings, in Australia, we've come to an agreement with AUSTRAC regarding the contraventions that SkyCity Adelaide will admit in the civil penalty proceedings and the amount of the civil penalty we will jointly propose as appropriate. This is subject to the finalization of the statement of agreed facts and admissions and the outcome of the penalty hearing set down for later this year. Also in South Australia, the independent review commissioned by CBS remains on hold. Kroll was appointed in August 2023 as the independent expert for SkyCity Adelaide, and we're now working with Kroll to agree a program of work for AML and host responsibility that will be approved by the commissioner and monitored by Kroll.
In New Zealand, the DIA's application to temporarily suspend SkyCity's New Zealand casino operator license is scheduled to be heard in private during the week of the 15th of April 2024. As a follow-up to our announcement last week, the DIA has now filed a statement of claim in the High Court for noncompliance with the AML/CFT Act 2009. The DIA alleges that SkyCity did not meet its obligations relating to its risk assessment, established implementing and maintaining a compliance program, monitoring accounts and transactions, continued enhanced customer due diligence, and terminating existing business relationships. I want to reiterate that SkyCity is committed to resolving this critical matter as quickly as possible. While we continue to make good progress on our enhancement programs across the group, there remains more work to do.
SkyCity is absolutely committed to this, and this is reflected in our programs of work and our priorities across the group. I'm now going to hand over to Julie Amey, our Chief Financial Officer, who will provide an update of the group results and an update on capital allocation.
[Foreign language] to everyone listening in. Before I speak to the group's financial performance in the first half of the year, I want to highlight that following the change to our Premium Play operating model in the last financial year, premium tables is now a separate business segment embedded into each of our properties. Also, given that for the foreseeable future, this will be a smaller and less material business segment, we no longer normalize the Premium Play actual win rate to theoretical win rate in our results. We have restated the prior year comparison in the presentation to reflect this change. We've also moved away from using the term normalization, but instead, we now refer to underlying results to represent adjustments made to our reported results, as summarized in the appendix of the presentation. Now, over to the results.
The group's full year 2024 interim reported earnings of NZD 101 million and profits of NZD 22.5 million are significantly impacted by the one-off provisions we recognize for both the AUSTRAC and the DIA proceedings. These provisions include estimates for costs and legal fees associated with these matters, and the actual amounts could be higher or lower than the provisioned amounts. While these provisions are adjusted out of our underlying performance for ease of comparison, I want to reinforce that they continue to be a key focus for our cash and capital management considerations. As such, we continue to carry significant headroom for these items and other uncertainties. I now refer you to page 10 in the presentation.
While we were very pleased with our customer visitation trends across the group, we have certainly felt the impact of softer customer spend levels across all of our properties as our consumers navigated the tougher economic environment. This has contributed to our softer performance that is particularly evident in gaming machine revenue when compared to the prior period. Pleasingly, though, our non-gaming business segments have been buoyed by international tourism, particularly in Auckland. Also, premium tables revenue has benefited from recovering visitation, with a strong win rate in Auckland during the first half of the financial year. EGMs remain the group's highest revenue and highest margin contributor, delivering 47% of the group's revenue in first half 2024 at an earnings margin of 66%.
However, EGM revenue is around 7% lower than the prior period, and this has driven a change to the group's revenue mix, which has been a key driver for the reduction in the group's underlying EBITDA margin to 29.8%. While the group's local table games deterioration against the prior period looks modest, it actually represents the impact of a significant increase in tables opening hours in New Zealand, offset by a significant reduction in Adelaide. Callum will speak further to these movements in the operations update. The increase in expenses against the prior period is largely reflective of the anticipated ramp-up in labor in New Zealand, coupled with wage and salary inflation across the group of around 7%.
In addition, the group has continued to ramp up its investment in compliance, with both BAU and one-off compliance costs totaling around NZD 14 million in the first half of the year, which is 47% higher than the prior period. There are also areas of cost takeout, though. Examples include the reduction in premium host and VIP sales positions, cost reduction associated with lower table opening hours in Adelaide, and a more favorable utilities contract negotiated for our property in Adelaide. From a capital spend perspective, you will see on page 11 that we have continued to be conservative in our first-half capital allocation to help ensure we retain a strong balance sheet position. We committed NZD 33.5 million of capital in the first half of the financial year, which was largely in support of our gaming product and systems, our property upgrades, and our facilities maintenance across the group.
We're now entering a period where a ramp-up will be required to address refurbishment and integration requirements in our Auckland precinct and to progress our gaming transformation initiatives across the group. However, the overall BAU capital spend for the remainder of this financial year is still expected to track below our typical annual average spend of between NZD 80 million and NZD 100 million, particularly because we are still in the early stages of these larger multi-year projects. Moving on to our most significant project, it is great that the NZICC has now substantially moved out of the reinstatement phase and back into construction. The Horizon Hotel is very close to being complete and ready for operation. Also, our other connected work streams projects are progressing very well.
We spent NZD 43 million on the NZICC project in the first half of the financial year, with the total cost to complete remaining for SkyCity of around NZD 110 million. We are working very hard on a successful opening for Horizon Hotel in April 2024 and NZICC in 2025, with the operations and sales teams ramping up and the integration progressing. Moving on to our financial resilience on page 12 of the presentation, we continue to be pleased with the strength of our balance sheet and the level of liquidity headroom we are holding to give us greater comfort over the matters that we have been navigating.
There is now more certainty in some areas, including the NZD 204 million settlement with Macquarie in January, the early renewal of a NZD 77.5 million debt facility that was originally scheduled to mature in June, and, of course, more clarity on the potential outcome of the AUSTRAC civil penalty proceedings. However, as a business, we remain cautious, and this is reflected across our capital allocation decisions, including the prudent level of interim dividend that the board has declared. As at 31st of December 2023, we had a net gearing of 1.75 times, which remains well within our covenants and investment-grade credit rating range. We feel comfortable that we are well positioned to meet the group's cash requirements within the debt gearing range of 2.4-2.5 times by the end of this financial year.
Before I close out, I do want to highlight that as our uncertainties ease and our major capital commitments near completion, the group will start the process of assessing our capital management strategy to ensure that our businesses and our shareholders are set up for a sustainable future of value generation and distribution. I will now hand you over to Callum, who will give you an update on the operational performance of our properties. Callum.
Thanks, Julie. Good morning, everybody. As Michael and Julie have mentioned, it was a challenging half for the operating businesses, with our customers having less disposable income and our cost base reverting back to more sustainable levels. The Auckland precinct enjoyed a solid half with around 8% growth in visitors, underpinning the improvement in revenue across many of the business segments. Particularly pleasing is the continued recovery in table games, reflecting higher opening hours as labor constraints have eased. Over the period, our table opening hours were 17% higher than the prior period. The strong growth in premium table revenue is impacted by the actual win rate of 3.13%, being well above the theoretical level of 1.35%, equating to around NZD 9 million in revenue.
Non-gaming revenue growth was also a highlight as visitors to Auckland are attracted to the many and varied entertainment options we have across our precinct, food and beverage growth was supported by our ongoing refreshment program, which saw a number of new offerings open since the prior period, including Cassia, Metita, and SkyBar. Hotel revenue growth was driven by a significant improvement in occupancy rates from just over 77% in first half 2023 to 87.5% in the current period. The room rate was maintained at a similar level to the prior period, which we consider to be a good outcome given the significant increase in hotel supply that has recently come online in Auckland ahead of the opening of the NZICC. Sky Tower recorded an over 30% increase in visitation, and we also reviewed our pricing during the period. Expenses increased around 20% over the prior period.
As we mentioned previously, since the COVID restrictions, we had been operating with staff levels well below optimal. The constraints in the labor market are now lifted, and we are now back to resourcing levels that can sustain the business requirements. Additionally, general salary and wage inflation of 7.5% has contributed to an increase in labor costs. The EBITDA margin remained just above 40% and within our expected range, with both a change in revenue mix and a higher cost base now reflected in the margin. Turning to page 16, we want to highlight the recovery path of Auckland's two key gaming revenue streams from pre-COVID levels. Firstly, for gaming machine revenue, you can see from the chart on the left that we experienced a very strong rebound in revenue in the period following the removal of COVID-enforced lockdowns to levels above pre-COVID, where they now remain.
Customers were very keen to get back out and start enjoying entertainment offerings after being constrained for an extended period. We have seen over the last two halves a slight pullback from these elevated levels and believe this, in part, reflects the challenging economic environment our customers are navigating and the implications on their discretionary spend levels. Turning to table games revenue, the chart highlights a very different recovery profile. It is a more gradual ramp-up. As we've shared previously, this reflects the impact from low staff availability that severely curtailed table opening hours that has now eased and enabled us to meet customer demand. However, tables revenue in Auckland remains below pre-COVID levels, which provides the potential for further upside. Turning now to our two other New Zealand properties, Hamilton and Queenstown, on page 17.
Hamilton, in particular, has been impacted by the challenging economic environment as seen across all of the revenue lines. Encouragingly, visitation to the property grew 5.2% over the prior period, but there was a reduction in spend per person across both the gaming and non-gaming business segments. Expenses grew, with labor costs up 9.4% on the prior period, contributing to lower earnings margin. In Queenstown, the overall reduction in gaming revenue was largely driven by lower premium play during the half. We have commenced the process for the renewal of the Queenstown Casino venue license to renew the license for a further period of 15 years from December 2025. We are also continuing with the process to exit the Wharf Casino venue license and property lease and have recognised an increase in the provision to cover the costs associated with this move. Turning to Adelaide on page 18.
As outlined in our trading update in December, the property's performance was softer in first half 2024, with revenue down 8.9% and EBITDA down 10% against the prior period. Visitation over the period was marginally below first half 2023, with a slower recovery in interstate and international tourism to South Australia, gaming machine revenue reduced by 8% against the prior period due to a lower spend per customer and also lower than theoretical hold percentage. Local table revenue continued to be impacted by the operational changes introduced in the 2023 financial year, with reduced opening hours and the introduction of the AUD 5,000 daily cash limit. This level of revenue is consistent with second half 2023, which reflects a rebased table games business. Eos Hotel experienced a modest drop in revenue, reflecting a lower occupancy rate of 73.5% compared to the prior period, reflecting the softer leisure market.
However, pleasingly, we were able to hold the average room rate at market high levels, although slightly down on the prior period. As we reported at our FY 2023 result, we restructured our cost base in response to the difficult operating environment, with initiatives including reduced VIP room opening hours and 60 fewer full-time employees across the property. Now I would like to spend a bit of time talking about our online business on page 19. We remain excited by the longer-term opportunity that we see in the New Zealand online gaming market, which continues to grow. We continue to actively engage with both regulators and the government on potential regulation of the market. As we have spoken about previously, the unregulated nature of the New Zealand online gaming market has created an uneven playing field where many of the participants are aggressively targeting players and ignoring local advertising regulations.
I would note, though, that visitation to our site has remained robust, with numbers of first-time depositors stable, which has allowed SkyCity to build a significant database of customers. We continue to upgrade our content, including the launch of Bingo during the half, and continue to uplift our compliance and regulatory framework, including enhancements to increased automation of responsible gambling triggers and the implementation of the safeTALK ASIST training programme. We will continue to invest in our online capability. And as we mentioned in our December trading update, we have brought forward planned investment in this area ahead of potential regulation of the online gaming market in New Zealand. We are confident that online gaming remains a very attractive growth opportunity for SkyCity. I'll now hand you back to Michael.
Thanks, Callum. Before moving on to the trading update, look, I'll recap on our first half and the key points I'll call out. Our earnings performance has been resilient. We're making solid progress on the compliance uplift programs across the group. We are progressing the resolution of our regulatory matters, making good progress there. Our major projects are on track, as you can see, resolving the car park and NZICC coming to a conclusion. We're preparing for New Zealand's online gaming regulation. Our preparatory work here is progressing, and we have a strong and robust balance sheet. We do expect the current economic challenges to continue over the next half. T herefore, we remain cautious about the outlook and the impact on our earnings for the second half of the current financial year. As mentioned, we're taking back the Auckland car park from 1st of February.
We've the benefit of that earnings stream and the synergies of this integration back in our Auckland precinct. Obviously, we're really looking forward now to the opening of Horizon Hotel and The Grill within the next few weeks, although we don't expect an uplift in our earnings in the current financial year. This five-star hotel and food and beverage offering, the Auckland precinct, will be a very valuable addition to our hospitality business in FY 2025 and beyond. Obviously, a key focus of management for the rest of the financial year continues to be both the uplifts of our compliance programs and closing out of the key regulatory matters. We are able to confirm the FY 2024 underlying earnings guidance we provided in December, group EBITDA of between NZD 290 million and NZD 310 million, and group NPAT of between NZD 125 million and NZD 135 million.
I'm now going to hand back to the operator to manage the Q&A.
We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star then two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Our first question will come from Kieran Carling of Craigs Investment Partners. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Just a few from me. Firstly, could you please provide some more color around one of the comments that you made on slide 7 of the pack, which was that CBS is reviewing the penalty regime to align with other states and maybe just touch on what that might mean for SkyCity?
Yeah. Look, obviously, the Australian casino sector, there's a significant amount of scrutiny going on in that sector across the board, across multiple states. We've been asked by CBS to input into a process of reviewing the penalty regime. That's really all I have to say on it.
Okay. And then I guess just turning to Adelaide, if we look at the softness in the table games revenue there, you've pointed to reduced operating hours and cash limits. Are you able to dissect the impact of those two factors and provide a little bit of an outlook in terms of, is this a new normal for the division, or can you see some increase in table revenue going forward?
Yeah. Look, in table games, the way we think of it, that business has rebased. This half was more or less in line with the previous half in terms of the revenues. We've also done a lot of work there on the cost side of the business, refining operating hours, and continue to do that. In this half in particular, we made some changes. We think of that as the sort of the base for table games that we move forward from.
Okay. Thank you. And then just finally, in terms of your EGM performance across the group, you've highlighted the second half's obviously going to be challenging. But can you give us a steer on what you've seen over the last couple of months on the EGM front and whether we should be expecting a further moderation from kind of the H1 2024 run rate or to kind of track broadly in line?
Yeah. Look, the comment I'd make on EGM performance, we're seeing pretty solid visitation. But what we're seeing, particularly in mass, is a reduction in spend, a reduced spend, which really reflects, I suppose, the economic environment that we're in. I wouldn't say we're expecting a further contraction. I think what we're seeing, we're expecting what we've had to continue would hold where we're at. That's what we're anticipating. And there's nothing that we see in front of us right now would have us have a different view. No, Callum, would you have anything else to add there?
Yeah. No. Look, particularly in Adelaide, hold was an impact in that first half. So obviously, we would expect to see that normalize in the second half. But to Michael's point, we are pleased with visitation. It is just the customer wallet size. And so we don't expect there to be a significant difference in the second half.
Great. Thank you.
The next question comes from David Fabris of Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, Michael, Julie, and Callum. Look, the first question, just around the Horizon Hotel, appreciate that it's going to have a marginal benefit in 2024. Are you able to maybe talk about the annualized EBITDA benefit into FY 20 25 once it's fully up and running?
Good morning, David. It's Callum here. Look, obviously, really excited, first and foremost. It's opening in April. We would see medium-term the EBITDA impact from there between NZD 15 million and NZD 18 million. What we would call out is that we're fully expecting winter in Auckland to be a little challenging. There's significant new hotel inventory that's come into the market in expectation of the NZICC opening. So the first 12 months will be competitive. But certainly, once we get the NZICC opened in 2025, we would expect annual EBITDA in that range, which is in line with SkyCity Hotel and The Grand Hotel as well.
Got it. I mean, just on the New Zealand ICC, it's pretty broad guidance for 2025. Can you narrow that into a quarter or a month for us?
Look, hopefully, at full year, we'll be a little closer and a little more confident on that. What we're seeing with Horizon is just a little push through as they complete the final snags, etc., with that. That's obviously a good warm-up for what we'll see with the NZICC given the scale and size of the NZICC. So at this stage, we're still in 2025 but feeling good about that but not yet a quarter.
Got it. And then just on compliance costs on slide 10, I can see you've called out NZD 11 million in the first half. Should we annualize that to say NZD 22 million for a full-year impact? And then can you help us think about how these costs reduce over time?
Look, I'll make a comment for Julie. So it'd probably be a little bit more a little bit more in the second half. It's probably annualized a little bit more than that because we're still hiring some more people. I think some of those are one-off and will disappear in time. But I think the pathway here is continued focus and improvement. The more we do and I think we call out in the appendix, we've over 100 people now directly in compliance-related activities, and we're still hiring. So that's the trajectory.
Yeah. I mean, when you talk about some will roll off, I mean, should we be thinking about half of the cost coming out of the business over the next two years? C an you kind of help us understand because it's quite material to earnings over the next couple of years as they kind of fall out of the business?
Yeah. Look, I think half is a reason, but not in one year. It'll take some time as we do, so some things will stop. So there'll be less legal review costs. It'll be more actual activity. So I think the shape will change. What we call out, I think we split it there in the appendix, what's one-off and what's permanent.
Got it. I'll just ask one final question. I mean, Julie made comments that you're going to assess the capital management structure. I'm not sure how much you want to share on that. But can you maybe talk to the optimal level of gearing that the business can tolerate? I guess as we move into 2025 and the cash generation, projects are fully funded. We might be thinking about a bump in the dividend payout ratio or potential buybacks. But I guess we need to understand what the optimal level of leverage is in that business to understand what's possible.
Look, I think it's premature to make some comments there. I think obviously, new CEO board isn't something I'd expect that.
I was going to say, David, I mean, it's a great question. We're working through it because we're looking at a whole capital allocation framework from how we finance the business to the dividend policy, the credit rating. So it's a big piece of work we're doing to set up for the future. So it's too early to probably give you any indication on that now. But we'll have a discussion coming up with the board around that as well, so.
I got it. Appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Thanks, David.
Thanks, David.
The next question comes from Mark Robertson of Forsyth Barr. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks, operator. Thanks to the management team at SkyCity. First, Michael, just want to acknowledge your contribution and wish you all the best. It's been a pretty tough period to be in charge of this business. Yeah, all the best for the future.
Thank you.
I guess the first question from me, just around the discussions with the DIA on Carded Play, are you able to give any sense of how that came about? Was it an offering from you guys? Did they request it? Just a discussion around how that came about and how you settled, I guess, on July 2025. Is that the fastest you can implement it? Or yeah, just any color you can give.
Look, I think it reflects the relationship we have with the DIA and how we work together because this is an ongoing conversation we've been having ultimately about changing our risk profile in the business and how we continue to evolve and improve. But maybe I'll leave Callum talk about that journey.
Yeah. So as far as timing goes, Mark, one of the key things we want to make sure is that when we implement, we're implementing a product and a technology that really works for the customer but obviously works from our side as well and what's expected of us from it. So the reality is there's not something you can buy off the shelf for this. C ertainly, the tables side of our business will be more challenging than the EGM and ATGs part of the business. But yeah, we've set up a team already on it. From a pace perspective, we are moving as quickly as we can. But the reality is that year and a half that we've got will go pretty quickly. I n that time, it's incumbent on us to keep working with our customers to continue to get them carded today.
A good example of that is in Auckland. We're up to almost 70% Carded Play now already as it stands. So within that journey of when we bring it in as mandatory, it's also taking the customers today on that journey.
Awesome. Appreciate it. Your second question is your discussions with the New Zealand government on the online legalization or legislation. Is there any color from them around timing of that? I think National and their projections needed it in place by the start of July. Is there any sense that that might happen or any sense in terms of what the framework may look like? Is it going to be open to any overseas operator to get a license, or is it going to be restricted to New Zealand land-based operators?
Look, I think it's fair to say you're correct in relation to tax policy in the National government coming in. I think they're just working through that. We're working through the DIA. There's nothing further I can update you on that other than that we would welcome regulation of this area. We've a highly regulated land-based environment and effectively very limited, if no regulation, in online, which is actually a larger sector. There's more revenue in gaming online in New Zealand than there is in SkyCity Auckland Casino, as an example. We continue to focus on getting the regulation, and we'll see what that will be in time.
Awesome. Appreciate it. Thank you, guys.
The next question comes from Adrian Allbon of Jarden. Please go ahead.
Good morning, team. First question I have is just which maybe is probably aimed at Julie, actually. Just within the way you're changing your reporting, I understood from what you sort of said is you're not going to normalize or you haven't normalized effectively the win rate, which would have been attached to the IB or the VIP business. So if that's correct, does that mean that the first half underlying EBITDA, if you'd reported it on the old basis, would have been closer to sort of NZD 137 million? I think Callum sort of mentioned roughly about NZD 9 million of extra revenue.
That's correct. Yeah.
As a further extension on that, presumably for your second half, do you budget at the 1.35 theoretical?
Yeah. We still do all our budgeting on theoretical.
Okay. So then on that basis, I guess it looks like versus your unchanged guidance, the step up in the second half is quite a bit more than what it would look like on what you've sort of reported today as underlying.
Yeah. That's correct, Adrian. But as well, then you can look at the Adelaide EGM hold, which was well below what expectation. But you are right. But there are some unders and overs.
Yeah. So that EGM one isn't.
Sorry, Callum.
EGM hold in Adelaide, for example, it's not premium tables but EGMs. There was a significant reduction because of hold. We had a lower hold. I think it was about NZD 4 million lower because of the hold rate. So there are swings and roundabouts in there. And because premium tables isn't any lower of a huge part of the business financially, these things now more offset within the half as well.
Okay. Okay. Understood. But I guess the way that if we were looking at it on the old regime, we would have been probably a little bit disappointed with the first half but calibrating a bigger second half, I suppose. But I understand what you're saying around there's volatility in this, and there's also volatility in the Adelaide hold rate.
I believe the volatility-
Just staying in Auckland, I know what is there any what's the daily tables limit in Auckland? Is that similar to Adelaide?
No. It's not the same as Adelaide, but there's limits and thresholds within which certain processes need to occur with customers. So for instance, at AUD 6,000, there's checks that need to be made and then further checks at different points of cash entry.
I think it's your question regarding the table differentials, Adrian? Or cashless?
Oh, just in terms of as you know, I've got sort of a heightened sort of sense of this kind of host responsibility, AML type stuff with the stop. And obviously, in the Adelaide result, you're calling out and you called out at the last result the impact of, I guess, the lower table limits, which I guess has probably been a more direct consequence of the investigations that have been happening through the Australian industry. I just kind of wanted to make sure that Auckland, there isn't necessarily a big disconnect, and we need to think about that into the future if you have to adjust that down. Or is that already adjusted for Auckland?
Yeah. Every six months, we review, Adrian, and make adjustments that our financial crime team recommend. S o we're comfortable with where we're at at this stage.
I think, Adrian, one of the challenges in Adelaide is the behavior of the customer because moving from cash to non-cash gaming because they can still game non-cash, and they still are subject to the thresholds that Callum referred to under AML. But it's really the physical change from cash to non-cash is where some of the customers have struggled.
Okay. And then, just staying in Auckland, and this may be a question for either Michael or Callum, just the new host responsibility program which you've agreed with the DIA and I presume the Gambling Commission, how much of that was already operative in the first half? Just so we can get a sense of what sort of changes, I guess, obviously, it's a lot stronger that it has been changed. How much of it operationally was operative?
Sure. Pretty much everything was already operative, Adrian, outside of the mandatory card and play piece. So there have been two pieces that have been escalated, falling asleep at a machine and begging. But those were things that were already a real focus for us. So outside of that, everything else is already in operation outside of the mandatory card and play piece, which we'll work on over the next year and a half.
I'd just like to add to that. So while everything so in addition, we in this half, though, are doing more things than we were doing in the previous half. For example, sort of facial recognition is now operating on ATMs, and there's interaction. So there's actually further enhancements that have been made. That's specifically not required as an HR. They are our own practices and policies. So that's an ever-evolving part of the puzzle in terms of that the standards and processes are always improving.
Okay. No, that's good. That's helpful to know. Just have they indicated when are they planning on doing their first audit against, I guess, the updated program?
We would expect one this year, Adrian, but at this stage, they haven't given us a clear indication of timing. We're always ready for one.
Okay. And then I guess just following off and covering off on this area, just on the AML/CFT side, just with the updated information that you've put in the appendix, I think, in terms of the progress over time, and hopefully, you can sort of comment somewhat on this, but given, I guess, the recent claim that the DIA has put forward, does your work program, as it stands today, cover what they're asking for or what they found in those claims?
What I'd say is the programs have been designed around the relevant rules and acts and so on. That's what they're designed around. You can see we've outlined there the level of enhancements and change that have been made and add on top of that the number of resources here. That's exactly what we've been working on over the last number of years to actually make sure we have and meet the requirements of our regulators.
Right. Okay. Cool. All right. Thank you, guys. That's good.
Thank you.
Thanks, Adrian.
The next question comes from Paul Mason of E&P. Please go ahead.
Hey. Thanks, guys. Just two from me. So the first one's just a quick clarification. I just wanted to check, was the car park earnings that are coming in the second half in your original guidance back in December? Because I'm just noting the concession agreement or the new agreement with Macquarie was done a couple of days after you guys issued guidance. So did you guys already basically factor that in? You presumed that that was going to close, or is that sort of new revenue that's in your guidance now that wasn't before?
That has always been in the guidance range, Paul.
Okay. Great. Thank you. And just the second one, just wondering if you could give a bit of color. With the sort of 70% of your Auckland players that are now carded, have you seen any impact on their spend that looks like it's attributable to being carded versus... I know obviously, you've called out a fair bit on the macro in this release, but do you have data that sort of suggests that the spend is impacted or not impacted by being carded?
So I presume you mean around the restrictions of Carded Play and our ability to monitor, Paul. So what I would say is there is no question that it's harder for our customers to be a customer of SkyCity today than it has been with the multitude of processes that we continually look at. So we would say that we see the primary trend as just being the cost of living. But undoubtedly, across our gaming portfolio, it's also just that there are more processes and checks and balances that we continue to have in place for our customers. But there is not a dollar figure we'd be able to put on that.
Okay. Great. All right. Thank you.
Thanks, Paul.
There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand the call back to Michael Ahearne for closing remarks.
Look, thank you all for your time this morning. As this is my last call, look, firstly, I'd like to just call out and thank the incredible team we have at SkyCity. We've over 4,500 SkyCity people that work across New Zealand, Australia, and Malta. T hey have been an incredible support to me in my time here and make an incredible contribution to our business. They are our business, in fact. And I'd also like to thank the investment community for your support and look forward to engaging with you over the coming days. Thank you.
Thank you.
That does conclude today's conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.