COAST MOST FOR POKIE PROFITS

Local punters rack up shock gambling losses

GOLD Coast poker machines are raking in the most profits of any region outside of Brisbane.

Shock new government data shows the Gold Coast’s 5611 pokies, excluding those at The Star Gold Coast casino, made an average of $38,677 every hour in December, 2018.

GAMBLING Gold Coasters lead Queensland for pokie profits, dropping three times more money into machines than the second-worst region in the state.

Shock new government data shows the Gold Coast’s 5611 pokies, excluding those at The Star Gold Coast casino, made an average of $38,677 every hour in December 2018.

Of 13 cities and towns across Queensland, the next worst area is Cairns where 1809 machines made $12,620 an hour on average.

It prompted LNP Mermaid Beach MP Ray Stevens, who is against the Labor Government’s consideration of a second casino in the city via its global tourism hub framework, to say it shows a new gaming house is the last thing the city needs.

“The people on the Gold Coast who can least afford it are playing the machines the most,” he said. “We have a situation we can’t reverse but we don’t need to add to the tale of woe by putting in a second casino on the Gold Coast.

“There is no valid reason for Labor to pursue it under the guise of a Global Tourism Hub. It is simply a grab for revenue to support an income-strapped Labor Government.”

Tourism Industry Development Minister Kate Jones has pledged any new casino would not add to the city’s pokie numbers and would have to buy them from the existing pool of pub pokies.

Mr Stevens said: “A second casino is unsustainable because it can’t live without poker machines and any statement it can is a boldfaced lie.”

The Queensland Government figures show the Gold Coast’s 5611 poker machines in RSLs, surf clubs and bars made $28.8 million in December – an average of $5128 per machine.

The monthly take of $184,142 was down less than a per cent on what the region’s pokies made in December 2017.

Alliance for Gambling Reform director Tim Costello said Australians lost $14 billion every year to pokies: “Rising pokies losses are causing misery across Queensland particularly in more vulnerable communities, adding to crime, homelessness, family breakdowns, suicide and bankruptcy,” he said.

Clubs Queensland communication manager Laura Bos said gambling was one of many revenue streams clubs used for community projects.

“The whole impetus for the Government allowing gaming into clubs was so clubs could provide important social roles for communities. Outside tax, we know that clubs have a social impact of about $850 million per annum of what they put back into the community. That includes maintaining football fields, assisting veterans, putting equipment to surf lifesavers.”

Ms Bos said memberships enabled them to monitor spending on pokies and identify problem gamblers.

“We certainly run that ruler over it. The key thing with us is we are community driven instead of profit driven. We have a vested interest in ensuring our community is safe.”

Mr Costello said State Government needed to reduce the maximum bet on pokies to $1.