In the previous fiscal year, gambling machines brought in $40 million for Victorian AFL clubs.
Poker machines gave four Victorian AFL clubs more than $40 million in revenue in the previous fiscal year, infuriating harm reduction activists and supporters.
Carlton is still the club that depends on pokies the most, according to statistics from the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission. It made $19.1 million from 290 machines spread over four locations, or $65,954 on average per unit.
Through 97 machines at the Wantirna Club in Melbourne’s east, Richmond was able to obtain $4.6 million, or $47,573 per machine. From 83 machines at its Moorabbin location, St Kilda took $1.8 million.
According to the advocacy organization No Pokies at Essendon, Essendon got $14.7 million from 190 machines at two locations, which is the largest amount since 2007. The team saw significant losses on the field this year, as well as significant losses from gambling, according to Mike Read, the group’s president.
“AFL clubs have rushed to exit the pokies business in recent years, realizing the enormous harm they cause to society,” Read stated.
Instead, Edendon emphasizes the money the football team receives from the gaming machines, as if one more losing season on the pitch justifies the harm that the predatory machines continue to cause.
One lifelong Bombers supporter in federal parliament, independent MP Zoe Daniel, supports the No Pokies at Essendon group, saying football teams shouldn’t be “preying on their supporters to make money out of gambling.”
Daniel argued, “This is a flawed business model that targets young people and bleeds money from the most vulnerable in our communities.”
“The reality is that the club is still reliant on the revenue generated from our gaming machines given the transition out of Covid,” an Essendon spokesperson stated. “Any decision on the long-term future of our venues will need to be carefully considered by the board.”
The spokesperson stated, “We won’t compromise the club’s financial stability and independence by making a hurried, short-term decision.”
The Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation’s Love the Game project, which tries to increase awareness of the harm that gambling causes to young people, includes Richmond, St. Kilda, Essendon, and Carlton as members.
The Alliance for gaming Reform’s chief executive, Carol Bennet, questioned the clubs’ participation in the effort considering that they had taken in millions of dollars in gaming income.
Bennet remarked, “You can clearly afford to be picky about your sponsors if you are raking in the money from your poker machines.”
“They should take a page out of Collingwood, Melbourne, Geelong, and the Western Bulldogs’ playbook if they are truly dedicated to being a successful football team and helping their local communities. These teams have all abandoned pokies and collectively won seven premierships since they did.”
In 2008, North Melbourne became the first Victorian AFL club to abandon pokies. Its leadership team refuted charges that it was only able to divest because it received bailouts from the AFL, and eight years later, it remained the only club without pokies.
At the time, the club’s then-CEO Carl Dilena stated, “There are other clubs who get the same, if not more than us (from the AFL) who do have gaming, so that refutes that argument straight away.”
Hawthorn sold its two poker machine locations in Mulgrave and Caroline Springs in July 2022. In 2018, Collingwood sold its 156 machines to the Melbourne Racing Club and declared its retirement from the industry.
Eddie McGuire, the former president of Collingwood, called the transaction “a prudent commercial decision” and said the money made from the sale of the machines will be placed into a future fund to support the club’s transition into a “independent and progressive sports club.”
Samantha Thomas, a Deakin University researcher on gaming, stated that in order to assist all AFL clubs in removing pokies from their operations, the Victorian government must “urgently implement buyback schemes.”
Thomas stated, “The last thing we want is for machines to just be sold on to continue causing harm.”
“Preventing the negative effects of these products and reestablishing healthier communities can be achieved by significantly decreasing the quantity of machines in the community.”
Proponents of gambling reform estimate that high-risk gamblers account for around 40% of losses from electronic gaming machines.
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