The Motukōkako Room takes its name from the island at the far end of the bay — the one with the passage worn straight through it. The room is on the ground floor of the hotel, north-east corner, 218 m², with its own door onto the terrace so nobody has to walk through the lobby to leave.
It is licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs and it operates under the Gambling Act 2003. Everything in it is physical and everything in it is here. There is no app, no account, nothing to download and no way to play from a phone. If you are reading this at home, the only thing this page can do for you is tell you what the room is like and when it opens.
Atmosphere, honestly
Carpet, low lamps, and about the noise level of a decent bar. Wednesday at two in the afternoon there might be nine people in it. Saturday at ten at night it is full and the second blackjack table is open. It is not a floor the size of a supermarket and it was never going to be: this is a fifty-four room hotel in a town of eighteen hundred people.
The numbers below are the ones on the licence. If a table is closed on the night you come, it is because there is nobody at it, and the duty manager will tell you when it opens rather than guess.
| Slot machines | 34 machines | Video slots and six older reel machines along the east wall, denominations from 1c to $2. Every machine shows its return-to-player percentage on the glass. |
|---|---|---|
| Blackjack | 2 tables | NZ$10 to NZ$300. Both tables run from midday; the second opens on Friday and Saturday from 6pm. |
| Roulette | 2 tables | Single-zero wheels, NZ$5 to NZ$500 on the outside. One table is electronic-display, one is called by a dealer. |
| Baccarat | 1 table | Punto banco, NZ$25 to NZ$1,000. Opens at 6pm, seven days. |
| Poker | 1 table | Texas hold’em, dealer-run, Thursday to Sunday from 7pm. Seats nine and the list is kept at the podium, not on a phone. |
| The Cape Brett Table | 1 room | A single high-limit table behind a door, by arrangement with the duty manager. Minimum party of four, twenty-four hours’ notice, and the same house rules as the main floor. |
Slot machines
34 machines along the east and south walls: twenty-eight video slots and six older reel machines that we have kept because people ask for them by name. Denominations run from one cent to two dollars. Every machine carries its return-to-player percentage on the glass, printed, not on a menu three screens deep.
There is no progressive jackpot linked to anything outside this building. Whatever is on the sign is what is in the machine.
Live gaming
All six tables are dealer-run — a person, in the room, with cards or a wheel in front of them. The roulette wheels are single-zero. Blackjack pays three to two on a natural and the dealer stands on soft seventeen; both rules are printed on the felt, and the pit boss will explain either of them to anyone who asks without making it a lesson.
Table games, in plain terms
Blackjack — two tables, NZ$10 to NZ$300. Roulette — two tables, NZ$5 minimum outside, NZ$500 maximum. Baccarat — punto banco, one table, from six. Poker — Texas hold’em, one table, Thursday to Sunday from seven, nine seats, and the waiting list is a piece of paper at the podium.
The Cape Brett Table
One high-limit table in a room behind a door at the back of the floor, named after the headland you pass on the way out to the islands. Minimum party of four, twenty-four hours’ notice through the duty manager, and exactly the same house rules and the same closing time as the main room. It is a quieter room, not a different set of rules.
| Opening hours | midday to 2am | Seven days, including public holidays except Christmas Day, Good Friday and Easter Sunday, when New Zealand law closes us. |
|---|---|---|
| Tables from | 12pm | Blackjack and roulette from midday. Baccarat from 6pm. Poker Thursday to Sunday from 7pm. |
| Last entry | 1.15am | The floor closes at 2am and cashing out takes about fifteen minutes on a busy night. |
| Age | 20+ | Photo ID every time — passport, New Zealand driver licence or an 18+ card. No ID, no entry, and this applies to hotel guests too. |
| Dress | Tidy | No high-vis, no bare feet, no gang insignia. Otherwise we are a resort in Northland in summer and we know what people wear. |
| Payment | Cash & card | At the cage only. There are no cash machines on the gaming floor or in the corridor outside it, by choice. |
House rules worth knowing
- No photography or filming on the floor, of anyone, including yourself.
- Phones on silent at the tables. Take the call in the corridor.
- Staff will stop serving alcohol to anyone the duty manager thinks has had enough, and that person cannot then play.
- Anyone on the self-exclusion register will be quietly turned away, every time, by staff who have their photograph.
In this room, specifically
No cash machines on the floor. A clock visible from every table — there are four, and they are large enough to read from the far wall. The room closes at 2am and stays closed. Free water and coffee, always, because a dehydrated person makes worse decisions. Staff on the floor are trained under our host responsibility policy to notice someone who has stopped enjoying it, and are expected to interrupt rather than wait to be asked.
Self-exclusion is available confidentially, in writing, at reception or by email to [email protected]. It takes about ten minutes. You choose the length, from three months upward, and no one else in the building needs to know you did it.
- NZ Gambling Helpline — 0800 654 655, free, 24 hours a day
- Need to Talk? — call or text 1737
- Problem Gambling Foundation — 0800 664 262
- Text 8006 · choicenotchance.org.nz · safergambling.org.nz