I was visiting Sammy’s Bar at the Skycity Casino in Auckland New Zealand last week.  I wrote about Sammys Bar some time ago when I was praising its great low prices, providing excellent value for all gaming players and their friends on the main Skycity Auckland Casino gaming floor.  At that time, the Skycity Action Card holder rate for a Muffin and Chips meal for example was just 4NZD.  That’s a real bargain, and much better value than the type of similar meal you could get from McDonald’s or similar food outlets.  And the prices on their other menu items (which was quite extensive in size) were also highly competitive.  I know a lot of people played the slot machines surrounding Sammys Bar whilst they were waiting for their meals to be made – so I’m pretty confident that the cheap food probably had a side effect of increasing slot revenues in that part of the casino.  I could be wrong… but I’m generally pretty astute.

When I visited last week, I noticed that the prices had gone up around 50% or more from the week before.  That’s SHOCKING!  And how can it be justified?  How can it be that a muffin and chips meal which was $4 with an Action Card the week before was now $6.50 with an Action card, and $8 without one?  I posed this question to Skycity Auckland on Twitter, but am awaiting a response.  I don’t think players mind an extra 50c here and there, or even a 10% increase – but a 50%+ increase over a weekend is NOT acceptable.  That muffin is now more expensive at Skycity Sammys Bar than it is elsewhere – and I think that in a casino, where food should be kept well priced, that this is simply not very fair.  My regular patronage of Sammys Bar over the past few months has now ceased.

I will let you know if I receive any feedback of worthwhile mention in the coming week or two.