Second floor 340 m² Noon – 2.00am, daily 20+ · photo ID
The Casino at Headlands Club
The Breakwater Room is the gaming lounge at Headlands Club: one room on the second floor, three hundred and forty square metres, thirty-eight gaming machines and nine tables. It is open to hotel guests and to the public, every day from midday until two in the morning, to adults aged 20 and over.
What it is, and what it is not
It is named for the breakwater below, the one that has been extended four times since 1887 and still takes the swell before the port does. The room was the shipping company's typing floor until 1974 and has the original steel windows: three of them, facing north over the harbour. The blinds go up at eight in the morning and stay up. You can always see what time of day it is.
This is a casino lounge inside a hotel, not a casino with rooms attached. There is no separate entrance from the street, no signage on the building, and nothing on the gaming floor that plays music at you. Most evenings it holds thirty or forty people. On the Saturday of Art Deco Festival it holds rather more, and we run a queue.
Entry is free, for guests and for visitors alike. There is no membership, no minimum spend and no requirement to be staying in the hotel. There is a requirement to be 20 or over and to prove it, every time, no matter how often we have seen you.
Casino games available on-site
Slot machines
Thirty-eight gaming machines along the western wall and in the alcove behind it — a mix of modern video slots, a bank of six classic three-reel machines that we keep because people ask for them, and four linked to a regional progressive. Stakes and return-to-player figures are displayed on every machine, as the Gambling Act requires. Machines are not available for play outside the room's opening hours.
Table games
Nine tables, dealt by staff who have all passed a Department of Internal Affairs certificate of approval:
- Blackjack — four tables. Two open from midday, all four from 6pm.
- Roulette — two tables, single-zero.
- Baccarat — one table, from 6pm.
- Poker — two tables. Thursday and Saturday from 7pm, and on demand for a table of six or more.
Live gaming
Every table in the room is dealt by a person standing in front of you. There are no electronic terminals substituting for a dealer, and nothing here connects to a game being played anywhere else. What happens at the table happens in the room.
The Coote Room — the VIP area
A separate room off the north-east corner of the floor, with two high-limit tables and its own service. It is arranged with the duty manager, usually twenty-four hours ahead, and is most often used by a group who want to play together without an audience. Table limits are agreed in advance and in writing. The same host responsibility rules apply in there as everywhere else — including the absence of a cash machine, and the clock on the wall.
Nothing on this website can be played. Headlands Club does not operate, host or advertise online gambling of any kind. Every game described on this page exists in one room, on the second floor, in Napier.
Before you come up
- Hours — midday to 2.00am, seven days. Last entry 1.15am.
- Age — 20 and over. This is New Zealand law, not a house rule, and there are no exceptions.
- Identification — NZ driver licence, Kiwi Access Card, or a passport. Photographs of documents are not accepted.
- Dress — smart casual. No high-visibility workwear, no gang insignia, and nothing covering the face.
- Entry — free. No membership, no minimum, no need to be staying.
- Payment — EFTPOS and cash. We do not extend credit, cash cheques or lend money for gaming.
- Cash machine — none in the room or the corridor. The nearest is in the ground-floor lobby.
- Under-20s in the building — welcome everywhere else: the restaurant, the wine room, the bathhouse and all three event rooms.
Host responsibility, in short
Every person rostered into The Breakwater Room completes our written Host Responsibility Programme and refreshes it every six months. They are trained to notice when someone is having a bad night and to say something — and, if it comes to it, to ask a person to leave. Nobody has ever been thrown out of this hotel for being asked to stop.
Free water, tea and coffee are on the floor at all times. Alcohol is not served on the gaming floor after 1am, and never to anyone who looks like they have had enough.
Self-exclusion is available on request at the duty manager's desk: in writing, confidentially, from twenty-four hours to two years.
Stay the night, or just come up for the evening
Rooms start at NZ$239. The stay-and-play package on the promotions page includes two nights, breakfast and a fifty-dollar gaming credit for The Breakwater Room — one per booking, for guests aged 20 and over.