Powerful senator Nick Xenophon has predicted 2017 will be a "very unhappy year for the gambling industry" as he pledges to haul retail giant Woolworths and pokie machine makers to a Senate inquiry to explain their opposition to limiting pokie bets to $1.
The pokie machine manufacturing industry has hit back, saying limiting pokie bets would be time-consuming, ineffective and cost it more than $3 billion. Machines can currently swallow up to $10 a spin.
Fairfax Media revealed on Monday that supermarket giant Coles had sought to introduce bet limits on its 3,069 machines but five major poker machine manufacturers - Aristocrat, IGT, Konami, SG Gaming and Ainsworth Game Technology - refused. Close to $200 million a year is lost on Coles pokies, anti-pokies MP Andrew Wilkie said.
Legislation stops anyone but manufacturers from altering how gambling machines work, meaning the manufacturers can easily block Coles' request.
Related Content
Coles' rival Woolworths is the biggest pokies operator in Australia. It has more than 12,000 machines in its 300-plus hotels through its Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group (ALH) joint venture with the billionaire Mathieson family. It's estimated that pokies account for at least 80 per cent of ALH's revenue, which reached $4.11 billion in the 2016 financial year.
Woolworths on Monday said $1 bet limits - as recommended by the Productivity Commission report into gambling in 2010 - were not on the cards.
Its spokesman David Curry told Fairfax Media that $1 bet limits were not "evidenced-based" and unfair because of other gambling products such as wagering, Keno and lotteries did not have betting limits.
"We already have industry-leading, voluntary pre-commitment installed on all our gaming machines in mainland Australia, we're the only company to do so," he said. "And if you look at the prevalence rates of problem gambling, they've more than halved over the past decade."
But anti-pokie campaigners Senator Xenophon, independent MP Andrew Wilkie and Tim Costello on Monday slammed the pokies industry as "malevolent bastards", "a pack of pariahs" and similar to the National Rifle Association.
Senator Xenophon said, "On the political front, I'll be pushing for a Senate inquiry to haul the pokie machine manufacturers and indeed Woolworths to explain to the Senate, to the people of Australia, why they refused to be part of making these machines less addictive."
"I'll be seeking advice from senior counsel today in relation to whether there is any potential action under our competition laws in this country," Senator Xenophon said.
"Secondly, through my [Nick Xenophon Team] state colleague in South Australia, John Darley, I'll be looking at legislative amendments to the South Australian Gaming Machines Act to ensure that where an operator of machines wants to introduce features that are less addictive, less harmful, that lowers the rate of loss, then manufacturers should not stand in the way of that. And in fact, regulators should do everything possible to facilitate that."
"And thirdly, pushing for a Senate inquiry to get to the truth of this, to get these operators to explain themselves and also to see whether they've had discussions with other operators including [James Packer-backed] Crown casino."
Mr Wilkie said billionaire James Packer, a large shareholder in casino giant Crown Resorts, told him years ago that $1 bets was "the one thing they [the industry] did not want."
The news comes after law firm Maurice Blackburn launched legal action against Crown Resorts and pokie machine maker Aristocrat for alleged deceptive design of Aristocrat's Dolphin Treasure machine.
Australians feed more than $11.5 billion a year into pokies every year and about 40 per cent of losses come from problem gamblers, according to the Productivity Commission report.
But Ross Ferrar, CEO of an industry body Gaming Technologies Association, said: "It is an indisputable fact that Australia has amongst the lowest maximum bets in the world for poker machines and that speed of play in Australia is amongst the slowest in the world.
"Our industry remains committed to progressing harm minimisation initiatives where they are shown to be effective."
0 comments
New User? Sign up