Minister is gambling with future of our community
CLUBS Queensland is shocked by the claim from Minister for Tourism Kate Jones that any machines for a second casino on the Gold Coast would be sourced from the existing pool in the region.
On Wednesday the Minister guaranteed there would be no addition to poker machine numbers on the Gold Coast.
Now we’re being told the machines for a second casino would come from the existing allocations of pubs and clubs. This kind of language is what we have come to expect from the Minister on this issue of casino licences and poker machines.
It seems to us that the Minister is more concerned with building monoliths for big business than building communities.
There are currently 127 operational electronic gaming machine sites spread throughout the Gold Coast and a total of 5992 machine licences available, with 5657 already accounted for.
The only way for a casino to operate successfully on the Coast is to acquire a significant bank of gaming machine licences. We are talking around 2000-plus machines for any potential second casino operator.
Gold Coast community clubs have some 3700 machines between them.
The Minister is suggesting the only way for the casino to acquire a marketable parcel of machines is to buy them from clubs or pubs and I can say, unequivocally, our clubs are not for sale.
Clubs Queensland is the peak body representing clubs in Queensland, which are all membership-based, not-for-profit organisations that exist to provide services to members and the local community.
Queensland community clubs put back some $850 million into local economies in cash and support.
We are social enterprises and take our responsibilities to our communities very seriously. It is why we exist.
Casinos are private businesses with profits going back to shareholders. Club profits go back into the communities in which they operate.
I cannot believe that in this week, ironically Responsible Gambling Awareness Week, the Minister is prepared to gamble with the future of the Gold Coast community like this.
So many services rely on the support that our community clubs provide.
Our independent research makes it very clear that more casinos in Queensland just isn’t sustainable.
At least 30 community clubs on the Gold Coast are at high risk of closing if a new casino opens up. Similar scenes will be played out anywhere a new casino opens in Queensland.
We have made it clear that there should be a moratorium on any decisions regarding new casinos for Queensland until we see what impact the Queen’s Wharf precinct has on the market.