Harrier Lodge
The gaming lounge at Harrier Lodge is reserved for adults aged 20 and over, in line with New Zealand law. Please confirm your age before continuing.
Gambling Act 2003 · Department of Internal Affairs
Harrier Lodge
Access to this website is restricted to visitors aged 20 and over. If you would like to talk to someone about gambling, the New Zealand Gambling Helpline is free and available 24/7 on 0800 654 655.
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The casino at Harrier Lodge
One room on the lower level, open from midday until three in the morning. Slot machines, table games, a high-limit salon — and a door policy that does not bend: 20 and over, photo identification, every time.
The Aurora Room is not a gaming floor in the Las Vegas sense and was never meant to be. It is a single low-ceilinged room of five hundred and forty square metres, carpeted, quiet enough to hold a conversation, with a bar along one side and windows at the far end that look out at the lake.
It is named for the aurora australis, which turns up over the Wakatipu perhaps a handful of nights each winter and empties the room every time — guests and dealers both go outside to look.
Casino games here are part of an evening rather than the point of one. Most people come down after dinner at Tarn, play for an hour or two, and go back up. The room is open to house guests and to visitors alike; there is no membership, no admission charge and no dress code before six in the evening.
Everything happens on site. Harrier Lodge does not operate any form of gambling over the internet, and nothing on this website can be played, wagered or paid for.
The room, in numbers
Lower level, below reception
Ninety-two machines along the eastern wall and the two aisles behind it — modern video slots, a bank of classic three-reel machines, and a small progressive link shared across the floor.
Eleven tables in the centre of the room, dealt by our own croupiers. Table minimums are posted at each table and reviewed nightly according to how busy the room is.
Every table in the room is a live table with a live dealer standing at it. Our croupiers are trained in-house over eleven weeks and re-assessed each year; several have been with the lodge since it opened.
A separate high-limit salon behind glass at the far end, with three tables, its own bar and a private entrance from the lift lobby. Reserved by arrangement, usually a day ahead through the duty manager.
Under-20s cannot enter the room at any time, including to pass through it — the lift lobby route is signposted for that reason. If you look under 25 you will be asked for identification, and our staff will not admit you without it. That is not a formality: the Gambling Act 2003 makes it an offence for us to let you in.
The bar in the room stops serving alcohol at 2:30. Complimentary tea, coffee and water are available all night.
Guests staying at the lodge do not get priority entry, and the room is never closed for private hire while it is open to the public.
VIP gaming
Three tables, a private bar, and a door that closes. The Cecil Room suits a small group who would rather play together than sit among strangers — a birthday, a company visit, or simply an evening where the main floor is busier than you want it to be.
Reservations go through the duty manager and are confirmed the same day. High-limit play is subject to the same host responsibility rules as the rest of the room, and to the same 20+ door policy. We do not extend credit to guests.
Gambling should stay an entertainment. When it stops being one, we would rather you heard it from us first.
Every member of our gaming staff is trained to notice the signs — long unbroken sessions, chasing losses, distress at the table — and to step in quietly. Self-exclusion from the Aurora Room can be arranged at the door or with the duty manager, takes about ten minutes, and is treated as confidential. It can be extended to cover the whole property if you ask.
We do not advertise gaming to people who have excluded themselves, we do not send gaming promotions to anyone who has not asked for them, and there is no ATM on the floor.