The Agency That Put
Poker on the Water
Founded on Station Pier in 2016, Aussie Cruise Events grew from a single folding table on a friend's yacht into Australia's only dedicated casino-event agency at sea — a team of producers, dealers and dreamers who believe the best nights happen between ports.
One Table,
One Yacht, One Idea
It started as a favour. Our founder Daniel Whitfield — then a corporate events producer — was asked to run a poker night aboard a mate's charter yacht for a bucks party. There was one table, a borrowed dealer, and a sunset that made every photograph look staged.
The guests refused to leave the table when the food came out. That was the lesson: poker at sea was not a gimmick — it was a format the industry had simply never built properly. Tables that slide on a moving deck. Dealers who teach. Structures timed to a sunset. Nobody was doing it.
Nine years and eleven hundred events later, we are the crew that does. Eighteen partner vessels, a team of forty, and a client list that includes ASX boardrooms, premiership football clubs and one very famous singer we are contractually forbidden from naming.
How an Event
Comes to Life
The Brief
Every event starts with a conversation — occasion, guests, budget and the feeling you want people to carry home. No forms, no questionnaires; a producer listens and asks the right questions.
The Design
Format, vessel, menu, styling and run-sheet assembled into a single proposal. Most designs are approved in one round — we have drafted four hundred of them.
The Build
Load-in day: tables levelled, felts inspected, lighting focused, staff briefed. The room exists — finished — before the first guest steps aboard.
The Night
Then the part you see: dealers dealing, glasses filled, the city receding behind the rail. Our crew stays invisible until the strike begins at midnight.
The People Behind
the Tables
Producers, dealers, chefs and captains — forty specialists who make one night look effortless.
Daniel Whitfield
Founder & Managing Director
Sophie Marchetti
Head of Charters
Marcus Chen
Head Poker Coach
Isabella Rossi
Styling Director
Trust Is Built
on Paper Too
Every safety certificate, licence and insurance document is available for inspection before you book — we invite scrutiny because we have nothing to hide.
$20M Liability
Public liability insurance covering every event, every vessel, every guest.
Marine Certified
All events aboard commercially surveyed vessels with licensed marine crews.
Fully Licensed
Gaming permits and liquor licensing held through our partner operators.
Privacy First
Guest confidentiality, NDA options and a documented privacy framework.
We Work on the Water.
We Protect It.
Every event leaves the bay exactly as we found it — zero waste overboard, carbon-offset charters, and a pledge that ten cents from every dollar of profit funds Port Phillip Bay conservation.
0
Waste overboard, ever
10%
Of profit to bay conservation
100%
Carbon-offset charters
9
Years of clean audits
In the Press
"The most original event concept on the Melbourne calendar."
Broadsheet Melbourne
"Casino night, elevated to an art form — quite literally offshore."
The Weekly Review
"Forget the function room. The smart money is on the water."
CEO Magazine
Melbourne Home,
National Reach
Headquartered at Station Pier with charter desks in Sydney and Cairns — the same crew, the same standard, in every port we sail.
Headquarters
Melbourne
Station Pier, Waterfront Pl,
Port Melbourne VIC 3207
+61 3 9646 7215
Charter Desk
Sydney
Circular Quay liaison office,
Sydney NSW 2000
Via Melbourne HQ
Charter Desk
Cairns
Trinity Inlet seasonal office,
Cairns QLD 4870
Via Melbourne HQ
Work Where the
Office Moves
We hire dealers, producers, hosts and hospitality crew seasonally. If you can hold a room, deal a clean table or produce a flawless night — the water needs you.
- Event Dealers — casino experience preferred
- Event Producers — corporate events background
- Hospitality Crew — RSA essential
- Photographers — events portfolio required
Quick Answers
How long has the company operated?
Since 2016 — nine years, over eleven hundred events and a team that has grown from one folding table to forty specialists across three states.
Do you only run poker events?
Poker is our signature, but our floors include roulette, blackjack, craps and wheel games — plus full event production: catering, entertainment, styling and AV. If it can happen on a ship, we can produce it.
Are you independent of the cruise lines?
Yes — we are the event agency; our eighteen partner vessels are independent operators. That independence means we choose the ship that fits your event, not the one we happen to own.