Barangaroo Sydney - creating a gambler's paradise

If the judgment of a good building be that it captures the essence of an era, James Packer's planned Barangaroo casino development on Sydney harbour is hard to fault. It's big, bold and audacious, disinterested in its neighbourhood and the traditions that have preceded it and it's targeted at "Asian high rollers". Most importantly, it's a casino.

How much more perfect an emblem of Sydney in 2013 could there be?


In the two decades since I left Sydney to live in Asia, plenty has changed. One of the most striking changes has been the proliferation of gambling.

Sydneysiders already loved their gambling when new laws were enacted in the mid 1990s under then state Labor premier Bob Carr (now Australia's foreign minister), allowing pubs to install poker machines - known to the locals as "pokies". 


And since the pokies arrived in force, a once vibrant pub culture has virtually disappeared. Pubs have become appendages of their highly profitable gambling dens.

Coinciding with the flourishing gambling culture has been a flourishing of corruption. Australia's largest city has been transfixed by successive corruption scandals reaching to the top of the previous state Labor government - the same government that sanctioned the spread of poker machines.

The stories emerging from recently concluded corruption hearings at the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) include hundreds of millions worth of state assets squandered in dubious mining deals. They would impress many a mafia-state despot.

One counsel at the hearings, Geoffrey Watson QC, compared the scale and brazenness of the rot to Sydney's vice-ridden founding as a penal colony with its infamous Rum Corp.

In 2011, with the stench of corruption hanging over the city, a new state government was elected in a landslide promising a clean break with the venal ways of its predecessor.


Two years on, and Sydney residents are wondering. In a curious decision, the conservative government led by Premier Barry O'Farrell, has decided that in their city, too much gambling is never enough. And that the city's gambling addiction should be celebrated in a 70 story tower on a prime piece of waterfront land known as Barangaroo - the last remaining downtown harbour foreshore site.

The former port is all but certain to be awarded, without tender, for the development of a "high rollers" casino and luxury hotel. The lucky developer is James Packer and his Crown Group.

James Packer is one of Australia's richest men. His grandfather Frank and then father Kerry built a media dynasty that has been exerting political influence in Australia for three generations. James has been less interested in media and has focused much of his attention on gambling and casinos.

This is but the latest tribute to the Packer family's formidable powers of persuasion. It will likely be the most enduring legacy of Barry O'Farrell's term as state Premier.

Aware of rising public concern about the social costs of the state's gambling addiction, Premier O'Farrell dares not mention the word "casino", instead referring to the development as a "VIP gaming facility".

Supporters of the casino argue that Sydney is not taking its fair share from the "high rollers" tourism boom and that the new casino, Sydney's second, will provide a needed shot in the arm for the state's tourism sector.

The O'Farrell government's current list of enticing tourist and civic accomplishments includes zero progress in the expansion of the city's incomplete bicycle path network and new laws allowing hunting in the state's National Parks. O'Farrell is putting out the welcome mat for rich gamblers and slamming the door on cyclists and nature lovers. I'd like to see some credible economic analysis on the international brand damage done by this combination of decisions.


Sydneysiders aren't told that the sought after Asian high rollers hail from countries that either completely forbid or severely restrict their nationals from gambling on their own soil - foregoing the tax revenue in the process.

China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea and Japan all ban outright or control casinos far more strictly than Sydney - despite the obvious cash windfall a more permissive approach would bring.

There must be good social or cultural reasons, or concerns about criminality, deterring these governments from embracing the gaming dollar from their own people and instead shipping the bounty to Australia.

What do these governments know that Barry O'Farrell doesn't - or doesn't want to tell us? And should Sydney become an outpost for a vice splurge frowned upon by governments throughout our region?

And if there are no major criminal risks from more gambling, what's to stop other regional governments following Sydney and Singapore's lead, becoming captive to the wishes of casino developers, and reversing their longstanding prohibition. A regional competitive race to the gambling bottom would undermine Crown's economic case and the state's revenue projections.

Either way, a debate on the wider issues and risks surrounding "high roller" gambling is yet to occur.

In a recent article in online daily Crikey, author Jonathan Englert asked "Hey Australia, do you really want Packer's casino to define Sydney?" The buildings we build define us. And the largest buildings in the best locations define our priorities and those of our powerful.

Sydney has one of the world's most celebrated harbours. It's home to two of the world's most celebrated pieces of architecture - the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.


In a wild piece of overreach, advocates of the casino dare to suggest that its tower will be a city icon of similar stature.

While the Opera House and Harbour Bridge are grand public creations, for the public good, Barangaroo Crown casino will target an elite group of foreign visitors for very private gain.

Until now, the decisions of governments, planners and developers have complemented the gifts of nature on the city side of Sydney harbour. There's a wide open buffer, usually green, in most of the space between the harbour and the city. And the foreshore remains clear of imposing towers.



The only structures of scale to get within that buffer on the city side have been the Opera House to the east, and Walsh Bay's heritage listed shipping warehouses to the west.

The Crown Barangaroo development will be an unsightly new interloper within that buffer - a radical departure from the restrained approach that has characterised development from the city's founding and created the magic that is Sydney Harbour.


Does Sydney, with all its natural beauty, rich multiculturalism and a lifestyle that is the envy of the world, really need to throw its brand down the casino drain and turn its back on a century of foreshore protection?

While nobody can doubt that the project will deliver a revenue spike, at what price does it come? And what are the accommpanying commercial, criminal and cultural risks?

How will a casino-dominated city impact our wider brand as a society and a tourism destination? Casinos don't resonate with many of the other obvious natural tourism strengths of Sydney and New South Wales.


I've spent the past two weekends walking around the Barangaroo site and then around the city to Lady Macquarie's Chair trying to imagine how the 70 story tower will impact. The photos featured in this post are from those walks.

It's a wonderful walk and a great reminder of what a perfect harbour Sydney has. It also gives a clear sense of the care shown in previous decades to protect the harbour from heavy-handed towers. It's something we can be proud of. And something that should be defended.

In one shiny 70 story tower, Sydney is about to forever change the relationship between its buildings and its harbour-  as well as its people and their harbour.

It's also about to deepen its commitment to gambling culture as an expression of its identity - its future and character. Name another great world city that's staked its future on casinos in the same way Sydney proposes to?

If you think I'm exaggerating, take a morning or afternoon and walk through the Barangaroo site from King St Wharf and continue all the way around to Lady Macquarie's Chair. It's a great way to spend a few hours.

And while you're there, imagine for yourself how the Crown casino tower will fit as a building and as a defining feature of our city and us.