Meet Daniel, he has been with us for seven years, having started as a Table Games Dealer in 2014 while studying at University. He has since held a couple of other roles at SkyCity including being a Host with our Premier Rewards team.
Late last year, he joined our Regulatory team as ‘AML Compliance Analyst’ where he gets to use his degree in law and his frontline experience from previous roles. When asked what he enjoys about working here, he says “This is definitely an easy one – the people are what makes SkyCity great. There are some amazing people across our business who I feel fortunate to have worked with.”
We talk more about his journey at SkyCity below.
Tell us about your current role:
I’m currently AML (Anti-Money Laundering) Compliance Analyst, a role I started at the end of November 2020.
What other roles have you held at SkyCity?
I started off as a Table Games Dealer in January 2014, picking up a role as a casual Premier Host in December 2017 before moving full-time to our Premier Rewards team as a host in December 2018.
How long (in total) have you worked at SkyCity?
Seven years
Briefly describe your current role
My current role involves making sure we’re complying with our obligations under Anti-Money Laundering laws across our New Zealand sites. It’s a bit of an evolving role, but it partly involves monitoring for transactions which might be of interest and analysing what happened in them, making reports that we’re required to do under the AML legislation and making sure that we know who our customers are and what they do. I also will help our frontline staff if they have any queries about AML issues.
What do you enjoy most about your current role?
It’s difficult to isolate one part of the role that I enjoy the most, but I definitely enjoy being able to make use of both my frontline experience and my qualifications. It’s a really exciting time to be part of this industry, particularly at SkyCity.
What sorts of challenges do you encounter?
One of the hardest things in the AML space is trying to understand why people are doing things. For one person, a certain transaction could be completely normal, but for another person it may be very out of character. Because there’s no black and white, you need to understand how a customer usually behaves, as well as their personal circumstances to know whether something is worth looking at further.
Tell us about some of your career achievements/highlights at SkyCity
I was really proud of the work we did in the Premier Rewards team during COVID Alert Level 2. There was a whole lot of work that went in by teams across the casino to ensure that customers were still able to visit. Because of contact tracing being required to be set up on Premier cards, we were the first people customers saw when they returned after a very stressful period. Being able to help them return to SkyCity and being part of bringing some entertainment back to them after the stress of lockdown was so rewarding.
What did you do before you joined SkyCity?
My main thing I was doing before SkyCity was studying – I have degrees in law and accounting from the University of Waikato, which I finished while I was at SkyCity. I had been doing a few different things for work – I worked at a call centre, was a labourer, ran a radio station. I also was a volunteer for the NZ Breakers for ten years.
What do you enjoy about working at SkyCity?
This is definitely an easy one – the people are what makes SkyCity great. There are some amazing people across our business who I feel fortunate to have worked with. For a lot of my time at SkyCity I was doing shift work, and as anyone who has done shift work will know, it can be really hard. But the people – both staff and customers – are a huge incentive to get out of bed for those late night shifts.
What would you say to anyone considering joining your team or applying for a job like yours? (What do they need to be aware of?)
I think the main piece of advice I’d give to someone looking to move into a different role at SkyCity, regardless of where it is, would be to get to know some of the people around the business. There are definitely some brilliant people who are willing to help.
Which of SkyCity’s employee benefit(s) do you enjoy most?
Free entry to the Sky Tower is amazing. Sky Café is great, and because you get to bring someone else up with you it makes for a great place to have a coffee and catch-up.
Is there anything about SkyCity that makes it different to other work places?
It’s such a wide-ranging business that you’re going to have such a variety of experiences. Also, being a 24/7 business, there’s always the flexibility to change things as your life changes.
Where were you born/raised and how long have you lived in Auckland?
I’ve lived in Auckland for most of my life, except for while I was studying at the University of Waikato in Hamilton.
What do you do outside of work? Hobbies, sports, etc.
While I was at university, I started playing golf. I don’t play very well, but I found that hitting a ball with a stick could be a really good stress reliever, even though the ball will more often end up hitting a tree rather than hitting the green.
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