All Vic clubs except Richmond and North to get big pokie revenue increases (Age)

[one-eyed]

AFL clubs 'win' in pokie reform
Jason Dowling
September 30, 2011

MOST AFL clubs in Victoria are likely to be no worse off in terms of poker machine revenue even if Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie gets his way on a mandatory pre-commitment system, research shows.

A new structure for the poker machine industry in Victoria next year will mean hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue now directed towards Tabcorp and Tatts annually will instead be divided between the clubs and the state government.

Charles Livingstone, from Monash University, has modelled the likely impact of the changes on AFL club revenue and estimated a more than doubling of total annual revenue for AFL clubs in Victoria from poker machines after 2012. All clubs except Richmond, which will have fewer machines, and the Kangaroos, which have none, are predicted to receive big increases. 

AFL boss Andrew Demetriou warned this week that clubs stood to lose 20 to 40 per cent of poker machine revenue from mandatory pre-commitment, forcing them to lift prices of memberships and admissions. But Dr Livingstone's calculations indicate that even with the maximum predicted reduction in revenue of 40 per cent, most clubs will still be way ahead because of their bigger slice of the revenue pie.

He said the big jump in revenue meant ''Victorian AFL clubs are likely to be in a very good position to absorb any revenue effects of the introduction of a pre-commitment system post-2014.'' Clubs and hotels also benefited by buying entitlements to operate poker machines in Victoria for the next decade at bargain-basement prices.

The AFL declined to comment yesterday when asked if clubs were being greedy by opposing measures aimed at reducing problem gambling when revenue was predicted to soar.

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire told Channel Nine last Friday that the proposed Wilkie changes threatened clubs.

''To suddenly out of nowhere, without any consultation, to have what looks like being a footy tax imposed is going to hit football clubs right between the eyes,'' he said.

Collingwood's revenue from poker machines is predicted to climb almost 33 per cent from 2012.

The club's chief executive, Gary Pert, said revenue projections varied widely.

''Depending on who you talk to you will get a different set of numbers, because that is all they are - forecasting of a completely different business model to what is currently in place,'' he said.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/afl-clubs-win-in-pokie-reform-20110929-1kzb2.html#ixzz1ZMLtHxYm

[Penelope]

an interesting report report by the ABC the other day regarding people convicted of drug offences.

Basically crime gangs target problem gamblers, lend them money then when they have them deep in debt they recruit them to either traffic drugs or house sit crops.

Of the more than 600 ethnic Vietnamese drug offenders surveyed, 72 per cent said they were enticed into the drug trade to pay their gambling debts.But the recruitment of problem gamblers to carry out criminal activities is not isolated to Sydney's south-west and is occurring in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

The ABC News Online Investigative Unit has spoken to offenders, police, defence lawyers and psychologists about this common pathway to drug crime and can reveal:

    Organised crime networks observe gamblers in pubs and clubs and cultivate friendships
    They watch a problem gambler lose large sums of money and offer a cash loan
    They continue lending money and do not seek repayment
    They call in the loan once the debt is built up and cannot be repaid
    The problem gambler is asked to engage in criminal activity to repay the loan

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-28/gamblers-recruited-into-drug-trade/3025290

[Gigantor]

I admit i know very little about the pokies industry,but was wondering how important to the bottom line  of AFL clubs is pokies revenue .Has losing the Richmond venue to mattheson and co,really affected our bottom line...other than selling games short term has the club done anything to give us an income stream long term