OUR BIGGEST LOSERS
GEELONG’S $119M POKIE PAIN
$20m lost at two venues alone Costello urges council to act
PUNTERS lost $118.8 million to Geelong’s pokies in the last financial year — throwing away an average of more than $325,000 every day. Gamblers at the Grovedale Hotel lost the most during the period, feeding $11.6 million to the hotel’s 80 machines. The Sphinx in North Geelong was next, taking $9.97 million. The Alliance for Gambling Reform’s Tim Costello said more needed to be done to protect Geelong from problem gambling and called on City Hall to a be a strong voice.
PUNTERS lost $118.8 million to Geelong’s pokies in the last financial year — throwing away an average of more than $325,000 every day.
The city has lost more on only one occasion, when pokies chewed through $119.8 million in 2008/09.
The massive losses were revealed in the latest Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) statistics, released yesterday.
The figures showed the City of Greater Geelong had lost the fourth biggest amount of money to pokies in the last financial year, trailing only the City of Brimbank ($139.5 million), the City of Casey ($131.5 million) and the City of Greater Dandenong ($121.4 million).
The Alliance for Gambling Reform spokesman and director Tim Costello said more needed to be done to protect Geelong from problem gambling.
“With overall losses jumping by $4.6 million in a year, Geelong has a serious problem,” Mr Costello said.
“It would be great to have the council on board for some full frontal campaigning ahead of the state election to try and persuade the two major political parties to act on this issue.
“Pokies really hurt the economy because the money lost does not provide any tangible benefit to the gambler when it could be adding real benefits to the wider community if was circulating through other business which make a more positive contribution to society.”
Punters at the Grovedale Hotel lost the most during the period, losing $11.6 million to the hotel’s 80 machines. The Sphinx, in North Geelong was next, taking $9.97 million followed by the Geelong Combined Leagues Club — trading as Buckley’s — where gamblers lost $9.1 million.
Not all of the losses are pocketed by venue owners, with some clubs returning a portion of profits to local community groups. Buckley’s, which is owned by the local football clubs
and umpires association, provides funding support to more than 100 local clubs, schools and organisations.
Geelong has now lost more than $2 billion to pokies since the machines were introduced in 1992.
VCGLR’s electronic gaming expenditure data for Geelong since 2014/15 has combined losses from the Borough of Queenscliffe with those from Geelong.
Across the state Victorians lost $2.7 billion on pokies in the last financial year — and increase of $86 million on the previous 12 months, the biggest one-year jump in losses for a decade.
Mr Costello blamed the spike on softer regulation passed by State Parliament last year. “The figures don’t lie — both of the major Victorian parties legislated for increased harm and today they need to get out of the bunker and explain themselves,” Mr Costello said.
“After a $7 million drop in losses in 2016-17, in the first five months of the 2017-18 year, losses were down another $2.2 million to $1137.7 million.
“Then, sure enough, the monthly increases started coming in December 2017 straight after the legislation gave the industry certainty to plough capital into the latest highly addictive machines and thrash them with increased marketing and sophisticated loyalty schemes.”