A bill to allow Canberra's casino to operate gaming machines in exchange for redeveloping the site into a swanky hotels and restaurants would not stop Aquis Entertainment from selling up before the development is complete.
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However ACT gaming minister Gordon Ramsay said while the casino operator could buy gaming machine authorisations before the redevelopment was finished, they could not use them until certain milestones were met, regardless of whether the casino changed hands.
"The legislation is not about Aquis, the legislation is not about that particular proposal. The legislation does set up that there would need to be redevelopment milestones achieved and they'll be set by regulation but that's not proponent specific," Mr Ramsay said.
But the draft bill, which would allow the casino to have 200 poker machines and 60 fully-automated table games, only came about because of Aquis' $300 million proposal to create a resort-style entertainment, dining and retail precinct in the city.
The deal hinged on the government breaking the clubs' long-held monopoly on poker machines and granting the casino the right to operate them.
The bill is likely to be hotly debated when it returns to the ACT Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
It has been introduced before Aquis has even submitted a development application, which Mr Ramsay said was to set up a "harm minimisation framework" which it could operate in.
"The government as you know is very clear about its harm minimisation agenda and what this is doing is making sure there's the right framework around harm minimisation, around people who are dealing with gambling and the harms that can be caused," Mr Ramsay said.
"This is not about the DA, this is not about the particulars around any proposal, what we're doing with this is establishing if there are to poker machines in the casino, what's a framework that is acceptable to the Canberra community."
Mr Ramsay also said the legislation had been introduced sooner rather than later so the casino could start buying authorisations from small to medium-sized clubs looking to move away from gaming revenue.
He reiterated the authorisations would only be activated once certain development milestones had been met.
However it is still unclear what those milestones will be.
The details will be put forward as part of separate regulation and will be negotiated with the casino operator.
The omission has also fuelled speculation Aquis will sell the casino.
Aquis bought the casino late in 2014 as its entry into the Australian market, with much bigger plans for a casino in Queensland.
The company recorded its highest share price this year the day after the bill was introduced into parliament.
Its passage on Thursday is likely to give it another upward nudge.
But Mr Ramsay said whoever owned the licence would be bound to finish the prescribed stages of development before the authorisations would be activated.
"This legislation has no dependence at all on who owns the licence for the casino so if it were the case the current licensee sold at some stage to a later one, the very same restrictions would be on the organisation who then owned the licence at that stage, there's no moving out or getting around the regulations," Mr Ramsay said.
To get an authorisation, the casino will have to do a social impact analysis which will be open for feedback for eight weeks on the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission's website.
Under the draft legislation, gamblers playing poker machines at the casino will have to nominate upfront how much they are prepared to lose over 24 hours
They will be limited to $5 a spin on the poker machines, compared to the $10 spins allowed in clubs, although the Greens will push for a $2 maximum.
However pokies manufacturers say any limit lower than the current $10 a spin would not be feasible, given the small numbers of actual machines involved.
