Responsible entertainment rules

01 Adults only

Casino-style activities are for guests aged 20+ and over. Our host-dealers may ask a guest to confirm their age, and may decline participation where it is not confirmed. Under-20s are not admitted to a casino-style programme at all.

Where under-20s will be present — a family day, for instance — we run one of our daytime or team formats instead, and no casino-style element goes anywhere near the plan.

02 Chips are props, and nothing is staked

Chips are scoring props. They carry no denomination. They are handed out at the door in a fixed quantity and they go back into our cases at the end of the night.

• They are not sold, and they cannot be bought.
• They cannot be topped up, re-bought or won from us.
• They are never exchanged for money, goods, vouchers, credits or prizes of any kind.
• No guest places a stake, and the outcome of an activity gives nobody anything of material value.

The vintage mechanical slots in our scenography — the ones people here call pokies — are part of the set. Their coin mechanisms are removed and sealed: nothing goes in, nothing is credited and nothing is paid out. They are there to be photographed.

03 This is not gambling

The service is not gambling within the meaning of the Gambling Act 2003, because there is no stake, no prize of value and no chance of material gain. There is no online play, no remote participation, no betting of any kind and no cash handling at the tables.

If you need this in writing for your venue, your employer or an internal approval, write to [email protected] and we will send a statement you can forward.

04 Nobody has to play

Taking part is voluntary, always. Guests can watch, eat, talk, use the photo corner or ignore the tables entirely, and that is a complete evening. Our host-dealers invite once and never push; they are hosts first and dealers second.

If an organiser asks us to pressure guests into taking part, or to run a ranking that singles people out, we will say no and suggest something that works better.

05 Running the night safely

Alcohol is not part of our programme and is never supplied by us: drinks come from the venue or your caterer, under their licence and their rules. We do not run drinking games and we do not tie any activity to drinking.

Our coordinator may pause or end an activity where a guest is unwell, where behaviour is making the room uncomfortable, or where the venue asks us to. That decision sits with the coordinator on the night and is not a matter for negotiation at the table.

06 If gambling has been a problem for someone

For some people a casino-style theme is not harmless fun, and an evening built around tables can be genuinely unwelcome. If that is true for anyone on your guest list, say so in the enquiry — we will not ask who — and we will suggest a format with no casino-style element in it at all. Four that work well for exactly this:

• The Puzzle Run — up to 40 guests, 4 hours, from NZ$5,400
• The Quiz Marathon — up to 60 guests, 4 hours, from NZ$4,850
• The Italian Coast Supper — up to 80 guests, 5 hours, from NZ$7,200
• The Company Picnic Day — up to 100 guests, 5 hours, from NZ$6,100

We will also happily run a casino-style evening with a parallel activity, so that nobody has to stand around at the edge of a table floor to be sociable.

07 Information and help

This is general information, and we are not affiliated with any of it. In New Zealand, free and confidential help with gambling harm is available from the Gambling Helpline on 0800 654 655, or online at gamblinghelpline.co.nz. The service is available at any hour, and it is there for family and friends as well as for the person gambling.

08 Questions about taking part

Anything about these rules, about age checks, or about adapting a format for a particular guest list: [email protected] or +64 3234 81 33. We would rather answer a question now than have an awkward conversation on the night.