{"id":89977,"date":"2018-10-09T11:00:05","date_gmt":"2018-10-09T18:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=89977"},"modified":"2018-10-09T08:00:49","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T15:00:49","slug":"ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney Opera House Horseracing Promo Display Sparks Anger and Protests"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than a thousand people lined the quayside in Sydney Harbor Tuesday night in a bid to prevent a light show advertising a horse race from being beamed onto the sails of Sydney Opera House.<\/p>\n

\"Sydney
The Sydney Opera House light display promoting The Everest horserace went ahead on Tuesday night, although the live barrier draw did not. Protesters attempt to disrupt the six-minute illumination with lamps and torches. (Image: The Australian)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The decision to project promotional material for next weekend\u2019s $13 million race, The Everest, across the World Heritage site caused a national furor in Australia.<\/p>\n

As the lights went on at around 9:40pm local time, protestors booed and trained torches and lamps across the Opera House’s iconic sales in an effort to bleach out the display, chanting \u201cnot for sale\u201d and \u201cnot a billboard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, an online petition signed by over 290,000 people had been delivered to State Parliament demanding the event be called off, but New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian refused accept it, according to the petition\u2019s organizer.<\/p>\n

One protester told The Guardian<\/em> she was demonstrating against the commercialization of the building and because of concerns about the gambling industry in Australia.<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not against things like the Wallabies or the rugby league being celebrated but it\u2019s a bit different. I mean it\u2019s a barrier draw. Why else do you care about barrier draws except for betting? I think it\u2019s a really slippery slope.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Shock-Jock Tactics Backfire <\/strong><\/h2>\n

The trouble kicked off on Friday during right-wing shock jock Alan Jones\u2019 2GB radio show, in which Racing NSW boss Peter V\u2019landys outlined his plan for the six-minute display. V\u2019landys said he wanted the illumination to depict the live barrier draw for the race, which he claimed would bring in $100 million in tourism dollars to New South Wales.<\/p>\n

Opera House chief executive Louise Herron said she had agreed to project jockey colors but drew the line at branding because the opera house was \u201cnot a billboard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

An extraordinarily aggressive interview followed in which the racehorse-owning Jones called for Herron to be fired. But Jones misjudged the mood and found himself on the end of a fierce public backlash over the perception that he had bullied and belittled the opera chief.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On Monday night, Australian comedy group The Chaser projected the phrase \u201cAdvertise Here,\u201d along with Jones\u2019 personal cellphone number onto the Opera House sails.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe haters have marshalled themselves,\u201d Jones reported during his breakfast show on Tuesday morning, adding that he was receiving anonymous calls every minute.<\/p>\n

\u2018Death Threats and Violence\u2019 <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Nevertheless, Berejiklian backed Jones and ordered Herron to permit the display in full, although a turnaround by the Racing NSW on Tuesday provided a last-minute twist.<\/p>\n

At noon, the horseracing body<\/a> suspended all betting on The Everest and announced that the display would go ahead but the draw would be made beforehand in private, citing security concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people have issued death threats and violence,\u201d V’landys told Australia\u2019s Daily Telegraph<\/em>. \u201cWe can have differences of opinion, but I don’t think it’s necessary to resort to that type of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones dismissed the protests as \u201cchildish stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than a thousand people lined the quayside in Sydney Harbor Tuesday night in a bid to prevent a light show advertising a horse race from being beamed onto the sails of Sydney Opera House. The decision to project promotional material for next weekend\u2019s $13 million race, The Everest, across the World Heritage site caused […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":89985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,14577],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAustralia Loses Mind Over Horseracing Promo On Sydney Opera House<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sydney Opera House is \u201cnot a billboard\u201d for gambling, claim protestors, as they attempt to disrupt promo for The Everest horserace.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Australia Loses Mind Over Horseracing Promo On Sydney Opera House\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sydney Opera House is \u201cnot a billboard\u201d for gambling, claim protestors, as they attempt to disrupt promo for The Everest horserace.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-10-09T18:00:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-10-09T15:00:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sydney.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/\",\"name\":\"Australia Loses Mind Over Horseracing Promo On Sydney Opera House\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sydney.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-10-09T18:00:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-10-09T15:00:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Sydney Opera House is \u201cnot a billboard\u201d for gambling, claim protestors, as they attempt to disrupt promo for The Everest horserace.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sydney.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sydney.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"The Sydney Opera House light display promoting The Everest horserace went ahead on Tuesday night, although the live barrier draw did not. Protesters attempt to disrupt the six-minute illumination with lamps and torches. (Image: The Australian)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sports Betting\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Horse Racing\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/horse-racing\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Sydney Opera House Horseracing Promo Display Sparks Anger and Protests\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Australia Loses Mind Over Horseracing Promo On Sydney Opera House","description":"Sydney Opera House is \u201cnot a billboard\u201d for gambling, claim protestors, as they attempt to disrupt promo for The Everest horserace.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Australia Loses Mind Over Horseracing Promo On Sydney Opera House","og_description":"Sydney Opera House is \u201cnot a billboard\u201d for gambling, claim protestors, as they attempt to disrupt promo for The Everest horserace.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2018-10-09T18:00:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-10-09T15:00:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sydney.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/","name":"Australia Loses Mind Over Horseracing Promo On Sydney Opera House","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sydney.jpg","datePublished":"2018-10-09T18:00:05+00:00","dateModified":"2018-10-09T15:00:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Sydney Opera House is \u201cnot a billboard\u201d for gambling, claim protestors, as they attempt to disrupt promo for The Everest horserace.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sydney.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sydney.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"caption":"The Sydney Opera House light display promoting The Everest horserace went ahead on Tuesday night, although the live barrier draw did not. Protesters attempt to disrupt the six-minute illumination with lamps and torches. (Image: The Australian)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ustralia-loses-mind-over-horseracing-promo-on-sydney-opera-house\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sports Betting","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Horse Racing","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/horse-racing\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Sydney Opera House Horseracing Promo Display Sparks Anger and Protests"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89977"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}