The owners of Canberra Casino have claimed the ACT government left them in the dark for 17 months over the details of its legislation to allow pokies in the casino.
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Aquis' chief executive Jessica Mellor made the claim in a statement to the stock exchange this week, in the wake of the government setting a one-month ultimatum on the company to confirm its plans for the casino.
The company, majority owned by Hong Kong investor Tony Fung, first lodged its unsolicited bid with the government for a $330 million redevelopment of the casino in 2015, part of which was to include hundreds of poker machines.
But talks over the proposal have dragged on for several years, with government and the casino struggling to find a middle ground, generating uncertainty about whether it will actually go ahead.
Last year, the Greens and Labor reached a deal on legislation to allow up to 200 poker machines in the redeveloped casino, in addition to 60 fully automated table games and other more standard gambling tables, as long as one in every three licences bought from clubs were sacrificed.
Several months after the legislation was introduced, Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay last week demanded the company update the government on its unsolicited bid by May 14.
He said the government's support allowing poker machines in the casino hinged on the redevelopment plans, but "critical information" about Aquis' plans for the site had not yet been provided.
Mr Ramsay also said the casino expansion, and the potential it included for the surrender of 130 machine licences, played a key role in the governemnt's plans to cut machines in the ACT from about 4900 to 4000 by 2020.
But Ms Mellor said the company had lodged the detailed business case in June 2016, then endured 17 months without a response from the government detailing what the legislation would allow.
She said the company would respond to the government "within the timeframe they have requested", but the company needed to undertake a "thorough process" to "determine the impact of such significant regulatory and land use restrictions as those imposed".
Ms Mellor said the company was still committed to its proposal to develop an "integrated resort" in Canberra, and it would continue to work with the government to achieve that end.
A spokesman for Chief Minister Andrew Barr said there was a year between receiving Aquis' detailed business case and the directorate confirming it was allowed to go to the next stage in the unsolicited bid process, which was also delayed by the 2016 election.
He said there was "no undue delay" but that legislation took time to develop, and unsolicited bids were not planned for in public service work schedules and needed "careful consideration, especially where gambling is concerned".
Mr Barr's spokesman also said the final ultimatum related to specific financial information regarding the company's ability to actually complete the redevelopment, which the government had asked for mid-last year but had not yet received.
Opposition gaming spokesman Mark Parton said the whole process had now become "a debacle", saying he understood if the company was "a little miffed at how their relationship with the ACT government has changed so dramatically" .
“Having not responded to the original business case for 17 months, for the government to then radically change the conditions surrounding the development and to expect a new proposal to materialise in a few months is ludicrous," Mr Parton said.
He said the process surrounding the casino's unsolicited bid would have wider implications for potential private investment across the city, but wished Aquis and other investors "the best of luck", because "they're going to need it".
Mr Barr's spokesman said if the bid proceeds, it would make a "significant contribution" to cutting the number of poker machines in the city and the government needed to know whether to take them into account as it moved to cut those numbers to 4000 in the next two years.
