Council asks Hawks to remove pokies

[Bunk Moreland]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/...tory/a861efc37d32af893a9827cd8081c513?login=1

The local council which presides over the home of the Hawthorn Football Club has taken the extraordinary step of asking the AFL club to remove its poker machines from the neighbourhood.

Monash Council is staying strong in its push to ditch pokies across the area despite being rebuked by Hawthorn president and former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett.

Monash Mayor Paul Klisaris sent a letter to Mr Kennett on behalf of council, calling on the club to walk away from relying on pokies revenue.

Hawks properties recorded $23.29 million in pokies losses for 2016-17, with $10.86 million coming from Mulgrave club Vegas at Waverley Gardens.

In his reply to Mr Klisaris, Mr Kennett labelled the contents of the letter “extraordinary”.

He wrote that gaming machines were legal, most of the community did not use them, but that many who did were “older citizens who attend gaming venues, play the lowest denominator machines, not to make or lose money, but to go somewhere during the day for company”.

Monash is the sixth-highest local government area in Victoria for pokies losses, with $109 million lost in the 2016-17 financial year.

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

It would appear the Monash Council is unsure of their scope and responsibilities as a local government organisation.

 

[IKnowtheDog]

free up more of that land for sweet sweet land development without adding further amenities for the community.

 

[LeverPuller]

Klisaris is too busy trying to get ratepayers to forget he doesn't even live in Monash and he blows thousands in ratepayers cash on Elwood dinners

 

[Bostonian]

I wonder if Monash will provide free parking every where in it's boundaries so that they aren't seen to be revenue raising and preying on peoples needs.

 

[Messenger]

I don’t like them and I’d rather HFC didn’t have them anywhere.

But it is legal and Monash approach the problem in a quite ham fisted manner.

 

[Bostonian]

It would appear the Monash Council is unsure of their scope and responsibilities as a local government organisation.

A good reason to * councils off. We are way over governed as it is.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

free up more of that land for sweet sweet land development without adding further amenities for the community.

Vegas is within Waverley Garden Shopping Centre, which is privately owned.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

I don’t like them and I’d rather HFC didn’t have them anywhere.

But it is legal and Monash approach the problem in a quite hame fisted manner.

It’s quite strange. You’d have to imagine it’s grandstanding on some level.

 

[Messenger]

It’s quite strange. You’d have to imagine it’s grandstanding on some level.

It’s a moral stand, I get it. But it lacks any commercial nous.

 

[Kwality]

It would appear the Monash Council is unsure of their scope and responsibilities as a local government organisation.

Someone looking for a career beyond his current role, sure to be popular with Kennett haters.

 

[projectv]

Good on them.

Pokies are cancer.

 

[IKnowtheDog]

Vegas is within Waverley Garden Shopping Centre, which is privately owned.

May have got my thinking messed up but comment was on relation to the general policy and it's affect on large land based establishments.

 

[BoxMatrix]

I'm sure that Monash will be pushing to remove all bars and pubs since alcohol is far worse for society?

 

[raven echo]

Roads, rubbish and rates. Council should be focusing on that and not the what the Hawks are up to.

 

[The 747]

Not a fan of pokies but the local government, really? Lobby the state government if you want the law changed, not the Hawks who are within their legal rights as a not for profit to bleed money out of the most vulnerable people.

 

[Feraligatr]

I actually don't mind the pokies. I might chuck 50 dollars in them once in a blue moon, I have fun playing out the 50, if I win I take my winnings and leave and if I lose I leave.
But I understand how gambling ruins people's lives and 100 percent believe there needs to be more ways to help people with gambling addiction.
However I don't think the council's should be able to tell Hawthorn what they can and can't own.