pokie revenue

Just 2.7% of the billions made from poker machines reaches community organizations and charities although Australia has more than 200,000 pokies — 21% of all gambling machines on the planet! The largest Australian operator of pokies is Woolworths, which owns about 13,500 machines. Here is a way that pokies might be used to make Australia more self-sufficient and bring the banks back under local control.

All this money from poker machines, taken from the people of Australia! Well, why not let all the income from pokies, at present going to owners and government, go instead into a fund from which banks can borrow, in order to reduce their reliance on overseas money? Then banks can have less need to say they must charge highly in order to pay foreign lenders.

Only the winners and the administrative costs need be taken from this fund.

Australian money spent on pokies is staggering. It is money that should be used.

Australia has more than 200,000 pokies — 21% of all gambling machines on the planet, according to www.greenleft.org.au/node/49849

A glance at the 2010 annual report of one of Australia’s largest clubs, the Panthers Group, shows how hollow the argument about community benefits really is. Panthers raked in $91.7 million from gaming in 2010, Rooty Hill RSL, also in Sydney’s western suburbs. Its 2010 annual report features a prominent drop quote from none other than Donald Trump: “As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.” The club is certainly thinking big when it comes to poker machines: it enjoys “Australia’s largest non-casino installation of electronic gaming machines” with an amazing 726 gaming machine licences. Poker machines raked in $43.2 million www.crikey.com.au/2011/09/27/clubs-australia-campaignand-pokies-revenue/?wpmp_switcher=mobile The largest Australian operator of pokies is Woolworths, which owns about 13,500 machines.

Add in what governments take from pokies.

“Pokies or Poker Machines are an Australian pastime that is getting more popular as time goes by. Pokies are everywhere you turn here in Australia, whether you’re in a local pub, sports club or casino, you can’t get away from them. Pokies are very similar to their online cousins, in that they use electronic, virtual reels instead of real mechanical reels. Pokies are the biggest form of gambling in Australia – for every Aussie dollar that is spent betting on the horses there are five pumped into the pokies. Pokies also generate a huge amount of revenue for the Australian government, so while pokies are sometimes the cause of gambling problems amongst Aussie citizens, the revenue they generate is put back into worthwhile community and federal projects.” http://onlinepokies4u.com/

Over 70% of Australian casino revenue is generated from slots play www.onlinepokiesaustralia.org/. Pokie revenues in Victoria more than $600 per person www.crikey.com.au/2011/09/27/clubs-australia-campaignand-pokies-revenue/?wpmp_switcher=mobile

Clubs Australia waged a $20 million advertising drive that called the proposed reforms “un-Australian” and harmful to community organizations it supports.

Yet Clubs Australia admits that just 2.7% of the billions made from poker machines reaches community organizations and charities.

Ask, how do sports and clubs in the rest of the world, including Western Australia survive without pokies income?

Author:
Dr Valerie Yule, M.A., Ph.D, Dip.Ed., M.B.Ps.S. Teacher at all levels, from preschool to adult and migrant literacy and PhD supervision. Academic positions at Melbourne, Monash and Aberdeen Universities in departments of Psychology and Education; clinical child psychologist at the Royal Children’s Hospitals, Melbourne and Aberdeen; schools psychologist chiefly but not only in disadvantaged schools