Host Responsibility

Policy version 4.2 · last reviewed 1 March 2026 · next review 1 March 2027

01

Our commitment

White Heath Hospitality Ltd operates The Ben Lomond Room at 88 Frankton Road, Queenstown 9300, Otago, New Zealand under the Gambling Act 2003. Section 308 of that Act requires us to hold and follow a host responsibility policy, and the Department of Internal Affairs holds the current copy of ours. A printed version is kept at the duty manager’s office and will be handed to anyone who asks, without a reason being required.

The policy exists because a small number of people are harmed by gambling and a hotel that runs a gaming room is part of that picture whether it wants to be or not. We would rather a guest left having had a good week than a good night.

02

Age — twenty and over, no exceptions

New Zealand law sets the minimum age for casino gambling at 20. Everyone entering The Ben Lomond Room must be 20 or older and must produce photo identification: a New Zealand driver licence, a passport, or a Kiwi Access card. We do not accept a photograph of a document, an expired document, or a friend’s word.

Our staff are instructed to ask anyone who appears to be under 25. They ask a great many people who are plainly older than that, and we would rather they did. Anyone who cannot produce identification is refused entry, and refusal is not negotiable at the door or afterwards.

Under-20s are welcome in every other part of the hotel: the rooms, The Kawarau Room, The Moonlight Bar when dining, The Sunshine Bay Bathhouse pool until 6pm, and all three event spaces.

03

What the room is built like

Design does more than signage. In The Ben Lomond Room:

• There are no ATMs on the gaming floor. The nearest cash machine is at reception, forty metres and one corridor away.
• There are clocks on all four walls, visible from every machine and every table.
• The room has windows onto the west terrace and daylight reaches it, so you can tell what time of day it is without asking.
• It closes at 1am. There are no extensions, there never have been, and the duty manager has no authority to grant one.
• Every machine displays its return-to-player percentage on the glass, and a sheet listing all 28 is on the wall by the door.
• The room announces the hour, every hour, out loud.

04

Money

We do not lend money to guests or visitors for gambling. We do not cash cheques. We do not extend credit, and gaming cannot be charged to a room account. Winnings above NZ$1,000 are paid by bank transfer rather than in cash, on request or at our discretion.

Where a stay package includes gaming credit, that credit is a fixed amount loaded at reception, is not transferable, cannot be exchanged for cash, and does not increase with anything you do.

05

Self-exclusion

Anyone may exclude themselves from The Ben Lomond Room. It is done in writing, confidentially, at the duty manager’s office, and takes about ten minutes. The minimum period is three months and you may set it longer. We do not ask why.

Once an order is in place, our staff will refuse you entry for its duration, and we will not send you marketing of any kind. Breaching your own exclusion order is not an offence you commit against us, and if it happens we will talk to you rather than about you.

A family member concerned about someone may also ask us to act. We cannot exclude a third party on their say-so — the law does not permit it — but the duty manager will speak with them, and will speak with the person concerned, and that conversation has been useful more than once.

06

Our staff

All 11 of our gaming staff hold current Department of Internal Affairs host responsibility certificates, refreshed every two years. Duty managers hold a General Manager’s Certificate under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 as well.

They are trained to notice the things that tend to precede harm: long unbroken sessions, a return to the room after leaving, visible distress, borrowing between guests, and chasing. When they notice, they are expected to approach the person quietly and offer a break, a coffee, a conversation, or the helpline card. They are not expected to make a diagnosis and are not permitted to make a scene.

Staff may not gamble in our own gaming room at any time, on or off duty.

07

Alcohol

Drinks are served in The Ben Lomond Room until midnight and not after. We do not serve anyone who is intoxicated, and an intoxicated person will be asked to leave the gaming room whether or not they are also asked to leave the hotel. There are no free drinks on the gaming floor and there never will be.

08

Complaints

If you think we have not met this policy, write to the General Manager at [email protected] or to 88 Frankton Road, Queenstown 9300, Otago, New Zealand. We reply within five working days. If our answer does not satisfy you, the Department of Internal Affairs regulates casino gambling in New Zealand and takes complaints directly at dia.govt.nz.