Exclusive: Gamblers sank more than $20 million into poker machines at venues owned by AFL clubs in the second half of last year, despite all but four Victorian clubs leaving the pokies business
In the 2018 financial year, when nine Victorian clubs had poker machine licences, the clubs’ revenue from pokies was $97.5 million.
“However, there is a structural issue because the machines and the venues are sold on and still remain in the community. We are now seeing increasing pressure from a range of different stakeholders for governments to ensure that there are mechanisms when clubs get out of poker machine ownerships, that they aren’t just transferred somewhere else and continue to cause harm.
Gambling reform campaigner Tim Costello said the four remaining Victorian AFL clubs had “really failed in their leadership responsibilities to the wider community”. AFL chief Gillon McLachlan has defended the league’s relationship with overall gambling, denying that the competition has “a dirty little secret”.
“They wouldn’t take monies from other legal, adult products … they wouldn’t take money from the Victorian Brothel Association, they wouldn’t take money from the tobacco association, which is legal. This really is a failure of moral leadership. And it should be a level playing field when there is an adult product doing damage in the community,” he said.
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