From the Age:
Hawthorn's $23 million haul wins pokies premiership
Hawthorn's $23 million haul wins pokies premiership
- Nick Toscano
- Victorians have lost almost $94 million on football club-owned poker machines in the past year.
The state gambling regulator released new figures on Friday that showed total pokies losses ran to $2.6billion, roughly the same as the previous financial year.
Hawthorn Hawks reaped the most money for the year, $23.29 million, up 3.1 per cent on last year's $22.6 million. The second biggest taker was Carlton, with its 290 gaming machines claiming $17.6 million at four venues, up 3.3 per cent from last year.
Other AFL clubs including Essendon (down 2.2 per cent to $11.85 million), Collingwood (up 58 per cent to $12.2 million), Melbourne (up 4.4 per cent to $10.3 million) and Geelong (down 19.4 per cent to $5.24 million) also recorded millions of dollars in pokies takings.
The Alliance for Gambling Reform said Australians were still gambling away more money per capita than any other country.
- The alliance's director Tim Costello said it was "wrong" that gamblers at Hawthorn's West Waters Hotel lost $12.43 million on pokies last year to sustain the "lifestyle of millionaire footballers".
"It's just wrong and the Hawthorn board should be ashamed of themselves."
He called on the league and clubs to quit pokies as North Melbourne has done.
"As a lifelong Essendon supporter, I'll be buying a North Melbourne membership in 2018 if my club hasn't committed to exit the pokies by the beginning of next season."
Neil Murray, of Community Clubs Victoria, said the gambling expenditure at AFL clubs' venues was "provided willingly by customers who go there for their own entertainment purposes", and was invested back into their clubs.
"The money raised by AFL go to their true purposes and the development of football," he said.
"The AFL and the love of football has been grown into the Victorian psyche."
Stephen Mayne, a spokesman for the Alliance for Gambling Reform, said the average yearly pay of an AFL player had risen to $370,000.
"And this is partly funded by state-sponsored abuse in poor areas by dangerous and addictive machines," he said. "This is going to be an issue at the upcoming annual general meetings of all these clubs, and the directors there had better be ready to explain themselves."
Mr Mayne said it had been 10 years since North Melbourne decided to dump its poker machine, and called on the other clubs to follow its lead.
"Let the NRL be the pokies-dominated code ... we are not the NRL, we are better than that," he said.
Losses by local government area saw Brimbank top the league table with $134.14 million down from $143.05 million the previous year. Epping Plaza was the venue posting the biggest losses at about $21 million
