Host Responsibility

Policy 6.1 · Reviewed 4 May 2026 · Held by the General Manager, Oceanic Manor Hospitality Ltd · Reviewed every year and whenever the gaming operation changes.

1. Where we stand

Oceanic Manor Hospitality Ltd runs the Marine Room, the gaming floor on the first storey of the hotel at 63 Marine Parade, Napier. We do it under the Gambling Act 2003 and the conditions on our licence, and we answer to the Department of Internal Affairs for how it is done.

Section 308 of that Act requires a written host responsibility policy aimed at spotting and reducing gambling harm. What follows is the plain version of the document we hold, file and train against. The full text sits at the front desk and you may read it whenever you like.

Our position is not complicated. An evening in the Marine Room is an evening out that costs money, in the same way that dinner downstairs costs money. It is not a method of making any. We never suggest otherwise, and when somebody starts behaving as though it were, we step in rather than look away.

2. Age, and the door

Nobody under 20 years old may enter the Marine Room. That is New Zealand law and we have no discretion in it — not for house guests, not for their guests, not for a wedding party, not for anybody.

Photo identification is checked at the door on every entry, for every person, regardless of how old they appear. We take a passport, a New Zealand driver licence, a New Zealand 18+ or Kiwi Access card, or an approved evidence-of-age document. We do not take photographs of documents, expired documents, or documents belonging to somebody else.

Anyone under 20 who tries to come in, or who is found on the floor, is walked out and their details are written down. Anyone who helps a person under 20 get in is removed from the floor and may be refused the hotel altogether.

The age question on this website exists for the same reason. Answering it is not a substitute for the check at the door.

3. Asking to be kept out

Anybody can ask us to keep them out of the Marine Room. You need give no reason, you need not be staying here, and you need not write it yourself — telling a dealer, a supervisor or anybody at the desk is enough to start it moving.

An exclusion runs for a period you choose, from three months to two years, and can be extended. It covers the gaming floor only: the hotel, the restaurant, the bar, the pavilion and the event rooms all remain open to you. We keep a photograph and contact details, securely, for the single purpose of making the exclusion work, and we do not pass that record to any other venue unless you ask us to in writing.

An exclusion cannot be cancelled early. When it runs out we do not write to tell you so. Nobody under an exclusion receives marketing from us, and nobody receives it for six months after one ends.

We can also put an exclusion in place ourselves where we believe somebody is being harmed. We would rather arrive there in conversation, and almost always do.

4. The people on the floor

Every dealer, attendant, cashier, supervisor and duty manager completes host responsibility training before working unsupervised, and again every twelve months. It covers the Act, the signs of harm, how to start an awkward conversation, how to arrange an exclusion, and where to send somebody who needs more than we can give.

A trained duty manager is in the building whenever the gaming floor is open. Their name is on the board at the door of the Marine Room and at the front desk, and any guest may ask for them at any time.

Every host responsibility intervention goes into a register. The General Manager reads it monthly, and the Department of Internal Affairs may read it whenever it asks.

5. How the room is run

• No cash machine on the gaming floor or on the stair up to it.
• No credit for gaming, in any shape. We do not lend, do not hold cheques, do not advance chips, and do not let gaming go on a room account.
• Clocks on three walls, and windows on the seaward side, so that the hour is never a mystery.
• Water and soft drinks free at the corner bar, at all times.
• Odds and return-to-player figures shown at the tables and on every machine cabinet.
• Helpline cards at the door, at the cashier, at the bar and in the WCs.
• No gaming advertising outside this building, and none at all to anybody under 20 or under an exclusion.
• Breaks suggested — supervisors are told to offer a meal, a walk or a coffee to anybody who has been at it a long time without stopping.

6. Drink and play

We hold an on-licence and are bound by the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012. Drink is not given away on the gaming floor, is never used to keep somebody playing, and is not served to anybody who has had enough. A guest refused at the tables is refused everywhere in the building for the rest of that night, and the duty manager will find them water, food, a taxi or a bed as required.

7. When it stops being a night out

Some of these will be familiar to anybody. Several of them together are worth paying attention to:

• Spending more, or longer, than intended — and doing it again the next time.
• Going back specifically to win back what went.
• Borrowing, selling something, or using money meant for something else in order to play.
• Being vague or untruthful about how much play there has been.
• Feeling flat, tense or short-tempered on the days without it.
• Playing to get away from stress, grief, boredom or an empty evening.
• Somebody close to you having already said they are worried.

None of this makes anybody a bad guest, and none of it is a reason to avoid the staff. It is a reason to speak to them.

8. Gaming credit in offers

Some of our offers carry a set amount of complimentary gaming credit. It is issued at the desk on arrival as a named voucher, works only in the Marine Room during that stay, and expires when you check out. It is not cash and does not convert to cash.

We do not issue it to anybody who cannot show identification proving they are 20 or over, to anybody under an exclusion with us, or to anybody our staff have flagged as at risk. We do not sell gaming credit on its own, we do not increase it after losses, and we do not offer it to guests who have not asked for a package that contains it.

9. Who to ring

Every service below is free, confidential, and has nothing to do with this hotel. No referral is needed and you do not have to give your name.

The same numbers help families as readily as players. If somebody else's gambling is landing on you, they will talk to you too. Face-to-face counselling is available in Napier and across Hawke's Bay through the Problem Gambling Foundation and Salvation Army Oasis; the front desk keeps current contact details for both and will hand them over without asking why.

10. Talking to us

To arrange an exclusion, ask about this policy, read the full document or complain about how we handled something, speak to the duty manager, telephone the desk on +64 6 835 4700 at any hour, or write to the General Manager, Oceanic Manor Hospitality Ltd, 63 Marine Parade, Napier 4110, New Zealand.

If our answer does not satisfy you, the Gambling Compliance team at the Department of Internal Affairs regulates gambling in New Zealand and will take it further.