Pokies open pollies to cant and hypocrisy

It is probably not a surprise but, when politicians act fragrantly and transparently against the interests of the public they are supposed to serve, it is hard not to be a little taken aback.

Kevin Greene used to be a school teacher. He is now the NSW Minister for Gaming and Racing and, as such, is concerned about proposals that would make it harder to pump money through poker machines. This is a Labor minister in a state whose poorest communities are home to its most regular gamblers.

First, some background. Australia has among the highest rates of problem gambling in the world. Ours is a sweeping land of pokies. Before the last election, Kevin Rudd said he hated the machines and knew something of their impact on families.

So the Federal Government asked the Productivity Commission to come up with some reforms.

Its draft suggestions failed to satisfy stronger anti-gambling voices such as that of Nick Xenophon but they have prompted a volley of reactions from those representing the interests of the pokie dens - the registered clubs' lobby and big pub owners.

Proposals include setting up a pre-commitment system that would allow gamblers, before they played, to impose limits on how much they could lose.

There are also measures to slow the pace of gambling by cutting bet limits to a maximum of $1 a push (from as high as $20), and allowing players to feed $20 notes into machines only after their existing credits are used up. Players can now feed as much as $10,000 worth of credits into machines before playing.

The corporate response has been quick. ALH Group, majority owned by Woolworths, says that any reduction in problem gambling as a result of the measures will be more than outweighed by the hurt it does to responsible pokie players who just want to have a good time.

And Greene is not won over. He supports the idea of a pre-commitment system but says 2015 is too soon to bring one in. As for maximum bet and cash limits, we need more research on what impact they will have.

Rigorous analysis is needed to make sure cash limits "would be effective in addressing problem gambling and not unduly impact on recreational gamblers," Greene says.

The likes of Greene presumably wrestle with their consciences before spouting this stuff but that does not alleviate the hypocrisy and cant. They claim 2015 is too soon to bring in a pre-commitment system?

It took the US 12 years to respond to Sputnik and land a man on the moon - it is within humanity's grasp to put caps on poker machines within five. And - maybe I'm wrong here - but I'd say we need more research into cancer, not into how to protect "recreational" pokie players.

I'm no wowser. I know my King of the Nile from my Queen of the Nile. But the number of poker machines in this country - and their peculiarly Australian place as a suburban time-waster - is a stain.

They entrench social division. The biggest clubs, pulling the most revenue, are not in well-heeled pockets of the city but in Sydney's west. Fairfield Council, for example, says it has the biggest concentration of problem gamblers in the state.

Meanwhile, the Mounties Group in Fairfield rewarded its chief executive with a pay rise of more than $100,000 last year, taking his remuneration to $526,000. The board hired a remuneration adviser to make sure his salary was comparable to those of other club executives.

Clubs earn between 60 and 80 per cent of their revenue from poker machines. For some, this is close to $100 million a year. The commission's inquiry has suggested that the industry operates on an 80/2 model, where 80 per cent of revenue comes from 2 per cent of its patrons.

Clubs, of course, keep claiming problem gamblers are only at the margins. Clubs are ultimately owned by their members and, they assert, it would not make sense for them to act against the interests of these members. They are not for profit and must reinvest whatever income they earn.

But who decided that the local accountants, solicitors and real estate agents who sit on club boards should have free control of hundreds of millions in tax-preferred revenue, almost all of which is stripped from the pokies?

Directors and executives misappropriate the history of their clubs to maintain their own puffed-up spheres of patronage, waddling off to dole out cheques for sportsgrounds and community groups with money extracted from the most vulnerable in their community.

State governments are afraid to lay a finger on them. They have much to fear, of course, from the political power of cashed-up clubs and their links to local football teams and charities. And there is also the revenue issue - state governments draw about 10 per cent of their income from the gambling dollar.

It remains to be seen how keen the Rudd Government will be to take on the clubs movement in an election year.

Issued by Sydney Morning Herald - 4th January 2010

Hotel Manager fined $7500

GATTON pub manager Daniel Luxford might have to follow liquor licensing guidelines a little closer after he and his venue were fined a total of $7500 in Gatton Magistrates Court yesterday.

The Imperial Hotel was fined $5000 and Mr Luxford, the manager, was fined $2500 for contraventions of its liquor licence.

Minister responsible for liquor regulation Peter Lawlor said the hotel had applied to have its liquor licence extended to an outdoor area to hold a bike and tattoo show in September last year.

The change to the licence was granted after extensive consultation between liquor licensing officers, the Queensland Police Service and Mr Luxford.

Safety conditions including specific security staff-to-patron ratios, the banning of glass in the extended licensed area outside the hotel and the sale of light and mid strength alcohol only were part of the temporary change.

“After inspections by officers from OLGR on September 19 last year, 10 breaches of the conditions were detected and the hotel and its manager were subsequently prosecuted,” Mr Lawlor said.

“The heavy fines in this case indicate how seriously the courts look upon breaches of the Liquor Act.”

Issued by The Chronicle 6th January 2010

http://www.thechronicle.com.au/story/2010/01/06/gatton-pub-manager-daniel-luxford-might-have-to-fo/