Battlers pay price for pokies profits

Gaming machines bleed money from local communities, explains Tony Foster

FOLLOWING Tasmanian Labor leader Rebecca White’s announcement that her party, on winning government, would act to remove poker machines from Tasmanian hotels and clubs, we are about to see an unprecedented campaign to defeat this bold and much-needed reform.

The campaign likely will be directed and funded by the very few vested interests who profit significantly from the misery caused as a result of losses on these insidious electronic gaming machines: Federal Hotels, a small number of hotel owners, their misguided industry association and employees who will be pressured by threats of job losses and unemployment.

Brighton Council has long been concerned at the adverse impact of the proliferation of poker machines in our community and particularly their concentration in lower socio-economic areas. Our concern is not just about problem gambling. It is also about money being bled from local communities like Brighton and the impact on families and the community. Our strong position is that poker machines should be restricted to the Hobart and Launceston casinos and research released this year demonstrates this view is shared by the majority of Tasmanians. That same research indicated each poker machine in Brighton takes more than $37,000 from the community every year.

Annual losses from poker machines in the Brighton municipality amount to $2.23 million a year, equivalent to every adult losing $208 with each machine netting $37,225, approximately the same as the average wage for the municipality. Of course, the campaign to oppose the removal of poker machines from hotels and clubs will have little respect for the facts.

Department of Treasury and Finance figures show pokies in Tasmanian pubs and clubs made more than $113 million in 2015-16. On average that is more than $280 for every adult. While that may not seem like a huge amount, not everyone gambles on the pokies, and the machines are not evenly distributed. They are disproportionately located in areas of social and economic stress. Research shows people living near a pokies venue are more likely to gamble and suffer harm. The more profitable the venue, the more likely it is to be associated with higher levels of harm such as crime, family violence and even suicide.

The same research reveals that throughout Australia, poker machines are more heavily located in socioeconomically stressed neighbourhoods. But their distribution in Tasmania takes this to a new level.

The more disadvantaged a local government area, the more likely it is to have many pokies. In Tasmania, poker machines are operated by a monopoly, the Federal Group, a privately-owned family company belonging to the Farrell family that also operates both Tasmania’s casinos, Wrest Point in Hobart and Country Club in Launceston. The Federal Group either owns and operates, or owns and licenses, the operation of all poker machines in clubs and pubs. These arrangements are unique in Australia, and very uncommon anywhere else. This monopoly system has allowed operators to cherrypick the market and concentrate the location of poker machines in lower socio-economic areas to maximise profits. In doing so it has continued to cause preventable harm to tens of thousands of vulnerable Tasmanians every year, while lining the pockets of a few.

Australia’s large number of poker machines and our unusual decision to allow them in pubs and clubs make us a global anomaly. Some 80 per cent of the world’s poker machines are in dedicated gambling venues such as casinos. Only 241,000 poker machines worldwide are in non-gaming venues, with the vast majority — 183,000 — in Australia’s pubs and clubs. Australia has 0.3 per cent of the world’s population but 18 per cent of its poker machines.

Tasmania has more pokies than India, Italy and the Netherlands combined, while most countries, some 226 out of 238, do not allow any poker machines in hotels and clubs.

The scare campaign has already commenced with Federal Hotels and the Tasmanian Hospitality Association warning of job and investment losses and Federal reviewing its donations to the Labor Party. The threatened job and investment losses are not backed up by fact. Of the 2000 or so hospitality businesses in the state, fewer than 100 have pokies and most of these are owned by a few.

Think back to pre-pokies

era, a thriving live music scene, jobs for musicians, waiting and bar staff, security and more. Innovative operators will change their business models to survive and succeed, as they have done in the past.

Surely there is a better business model than one that promotes addiction, exploits the vulnerable, decimates communities, and drives families into abject poverty and worse? Quite frankly, a business that depends on an activity that is not part of its core hospitality business to survive, surely should be reevaluating its business model.

The promise to review political donations is possibly the most positive thing to come out of the debate to date. Paying off political parties to ensure your family business continues to profit from people’s poker machine misery certainly does not represent healthy democracy.

Perhaps the most telling support for the removal of poker machines from hotels and clubs comes from the man who personally profits most from this scourge, Federal’s head Greg Farrell, who said in his submission to the Legislative Council in 1993 that pokies should not be allowed in pubs and clubs.

Mr Farrell said then that money gambled on machines “would represent a redirection of household disposable income and the impact on restaurants, theatres, cinemas and retail would be disastrous” and that “direct access to gaming machines in pubs and clubs would have a disastrous effect on the social and special culture of Tasmania”.

While his attitude may have changed once his family company gained the monopoly on poker machines in Tasmania, if anything, the impacts he warned of are even worse. Tony Foster is mayor of Brighton and a long-time campaigner against the proliferation of poker machines, particularly in regional and lower socio-economic areas.

Machines are more heavily located in socioeconomically stressed neighbourhoods. But their distribution in Tasmania takes this to a new level