AFL clubs rake in $20 million from po-kies despite exodusBy Jon Pierik and Craig Butt
The Age
February 27, 2023 How much does your club make from pokies?
Gamblers sank more than $20 million into po-ker machines at venues owned by AFL clubs in the second half of last year, despite all but four Victorian clubs leaving the po-kies business.
Carlton, Essendon, Richmond and St Kilda currently own gaming venues, according to analysis of gambling commission data. Collectively these clubs own eight gaming venues and 670 po-ker machines where gamblers lost a total of $20.9 million between July and December last year.
The Victorian Gambling and Ca-sino Control Commission data shows Carlton rake in the most revenue from gaming and have the most machines of any Victorian club, owning four venues and 300 machines. In total, gamblers lost almost $10 million at the po-kies in Carlton-owned venues in the second half of last year.
Between July 2021 and June 2022, gamblers lost a total of $29.9 million at AFL-owned venues, with the lower figure across 12 months in part due to COVID-19 lockdowns in the second half of 2021.
Overall, Victorians lost more than $2 billion on po-ker machines at pubs, clubs and hotels in the second half of last year, with the amount lost at AFL club-owned venues accounting for about 1.3 per cent of the overall total.
Five AFL clubs have weaned themselves off po-ker machines over the past four years: Collingwood, Geelong, Hawthorn, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs.
In the 2018 financial year, when nine Victorian clubs had po-ker machine licences, the clubs’ revenue from po-kies was $97.5 million.
At the time, Hawthorn were the club most reliant on po-kies revenue, but both the venues they owned – West Waters Hotel and Vegas at Waverley Gardens – are now listed under different licensees, leaving Carlton to top the ladder.
A Hawthorn spokesman said the proceeds of the sales would be used for the club’s Dingley redevelopment and other investments.
Samantha Thomas, a professor of public health at Deakin University, said it was time for clubs to sell out of po-kies.
“The thing that disturbs me is the lack of moral leadership.”
“There is increasing community awareness of the significant harm these products do to local communities and, symbolically, it is important AFL clubs start to transition out of owning these machines, or venues that own these machines,” Thomas said.
“However, there is a structural issue because the machines and the venues are sold on and still remain in the community. We are now seeing increasing pressure from a range of different stakeholders for governments to ensure that there are mechanisms when clubs get out of po-ker machine ownerships, that they aren’t just transferred somewhere else and continue to cause harm.
“Maybe that means something like government buyback schemes or incentives to ensure that these machines do not remain in our communities are increasingly important to prevent harm.”
A Victorian government spokesperson said: “Gaming machine entitlements held by AFL clubs are a matter for each club”.
The Blues said they are working towards building non-traditional revenue streams, including through the Carlton College of Sport, before considering whether to pull out of po-kies.
The Bombers, Tigers and AFL did not wish to comment when contacted by The Age. The Saints were also contacted. Industry sources said clubs could forfeit their gaming contracts, but would have to pay the full amount owing.
Gambling reform campaigner Tim Costello said the four remaining Victorian AFL clubs had “really failed in their leadership responsibilities to the wider community”.
“The damage from po-kies, we now know, is quite extraordinary because the machines are built for addiction. They are built to keep you playing for as long as you can and losing as much as you can,” he said.
“It’s the exact opposite of what clubs say their reason for existence is, to be great community partners. The thing that disturbs me is the lack of moral leadership.
“There are clubs that have got out – it wasn’t easy, they took a hit, but they said it’s the right thing to do. The four clubs still in it, they have merely mouthed things like: ‘Yes, we don’t like them, yes, it would be right to get out’, then they literally have a motto of: ‘Whatever it takes’.”
In 2020, Carlton announced they were getting closer to exiting the po-kies industry. One of their greatest benefactors is billionaire po-kies king Bruce Mathieson, whose son Craig sits on the Blues board. Bruce Mathieson stepped down in September as director of the $13 billion Endeavour Group, the largest owner of po-ker machines in Australia.
Former Richmond president Peggy O’Neal said in a letter to members in late 2020 that after litigation regarding the lease of the Wantirna Club was completed, the Tigers were “in a position to consider the club’s long-term position with respect to gaming”. However, the Tigers continue to profit from po-kies.
AFL chief Gillon McLachlan has defended the league’s relationship with overall gambling, denying that the competition has “a dirty little secret”.
“I’m also realistic, though, that by having relationships that we have, money comes into our system that we can put into community infrastructure, or clubs. We’re a not-for-profit,” McLachlan said in 2016.
“I don’t think it’s a dirty little secret. It’s something that’s debated reasonably regularly at the AFL and that’s my position. [It’s] not universal [at the AFL]. I have a view that prohibition doesn’t work in any space. So I start from there. But there are limits.”
Clubs have privately said the money accrued from po-kies is redistributed, in part, to their community projects, while also used to fund football programs in what is a tight market. Costello said any justification was unacceptable.
Read more here: https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/afl-clubs-rake-in-20-million-from-po-kies-despite-exodus-20230224-p5cnc8.html
