The club industry in Australia is probably the most generous segment of our industry; I know this from my own experiences of running one of the biggest and most successful clubs for a few years as well as five or six smaller venues. If I said I was bitterly disappointed in our current government it would be a gross understatement, an absolute disgrace would be closer, i am writing regarding the proposed pre commitment scheme for pokie machines the government is looking to introduce because of a deal they did with Andrew Willkie to get into power. I don’t think that our industry (hospitality and in particular the restaurant and catering industry) has fought hard enough about this.
This is an issue that will affect our industry as well as many others as it has the propensity to devastate the club and pub industry.
Why would we legislate for about 95,000 people who have a problem when the other 20 million odd are ok – the 20 million will be affected more by this legislation than the 95000 it helps!
My club sources tell me the projection is for clubs to lose 28% of their gaming revenue, i think that may be a high figure but let me tell you, I know of one high ranking QLD club that has done their home work, if they lose 10% of their gaming revenue they wouldn’t have money to pay the 1.7 million a year in donations. If they lose 20% of their gaming revenue they are insolvent, imagine this around 40 million in revenue, 250+ employees most of which are food and beverage staff all gone.
Consider the flow on effect to the rest of the community, food suppliers, service suppliers, the club and pub industry employs tens of thousands of chefs and trains many as well that get consumed in the other sectors of hospitality, all gone to appease a member of a government not elected by the majority of Australians. Here is an idea that may help the government, balance your books like we all have to and stop focusing on destroying those that support your habits. Try using a debit card instead of a credit card so we can have a fighting chance of paying your bills. Why does the government continue to operate in the red when if we do that in private business we would be shut down, possibly fined and possibly jailed. practice what you preech you bloody hyprocrits.
Every time the government and Andrew Willkie and his puppet master Mr Xenophon is questioned on this subject their response is always ‘well surely people don’t want to make money out of problem gamblers and that clubs and pubs have a responsibility to look after problem gamblers and that’s what they are trying to do’. Now most clubs agrees with this statement however it doesn’t mean the only way to help these people is to put in untried, untested and more than likely ineffective legislation in that will only create another level of beurocracy in this country.
The issues I have with the legislation are as follows
a) this will not necessarily help problem gamblers as they set their own limit on their card that they can use every day (no upper limit has been decided on as yet but could be up to 100,000.00 a day!) so how will this help them? If they are problem gamblers who set their own limit would they not go for a high figure?
b) Your average player who comes to a club dines, drinks, listens to the free music then maybe puts 10 or 20 dollars through a machine, would they be bothered doing a 100 point check list then signing up for a card to spend his or her money? I doubt it.
c) If you lose or forget your card you are locked out of a completely legal recreational activity for the day and can’t get a second card
d) What will the government be doing with a national database of millions of peoples details and casual gaming spending details? The govt says it won’t use the information, well we have seen their score card on telling the truth, let’s talk about the carbon tax.
e) Online gaming has no limits! Would these problem gamblers sit at home instead and lose more money online?
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