By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
WOOLWORTHS is a major player in a poker machines industry preying on socially disadvantaged areas like Greater Dandenong, says a public health researcher.
The company is a 75 per cent owner in the ALH Group, which owns three of the municipality’s four most lucrative pokies venues. Its five venues are the Keysborough Hotel, Sandown Park Hotel, Waltzing Matilda Hotel, Aces Sporting Club and the Nu Hotel.
The ALH Group’s pokies hit a $52.85million jackpot in Greater Dandenong in the 2011-12 financial year – 45 per cent of the $117million lost on gaming machines in the municipality. In the past year, Greater Dandenong topped the state list for losses per resident adult – $1100 – despite being ranked in the top two municipalities for social disadvantage. This is almost double the state average of $613.
Monash University senior public health lecturer Charles Livingstone said the pokies industry had targeted poorer suburbs such as Dandenong, which hosts six pokies venues.
The state government’s 41.5 per cent share in hotel pokies takings amounted to the “most regressive tax”, he said. “It’s Robin Hood in reverse – robbing the poor to pay the rich.
“The pokies are concentrated in lesser advantaged communities. People in those communities use them because they occupy so much of their social space.”
Regional caps on pokies numbers in disadvantaged areas such as Greater Dandenong had not succeeded, he said. “It just means the remaining machines work harder.” He said the ALH Group had been successful in identifying high-profit venues.
It owns the licence to 361 of Greater Dandenong’s 956 poker machines. The top money roller is the ALH-owned Keysborough Hotel. Its 89 poker machines collected $19.3million.
“Because of a ruthless approach, it has been able to produce the top 10 high-performing venues [in the state],” Dr Livingstone said.
ALH Group general manager David Curry said it “strive[s] to be the most responsible operator of gambling”. He said ALH developed a responsible gambling pocket guide that’s distributed to its gaming staff. The guide listed key help agencies for problem gamblers and information on the Victorian Code of Practice, customer interaction and self-exclusion programs. He said that in addition to gaming taxes, hotels paid 8.33 per cent of pokies revenue to the state government’s Community Support Fund for grants to community groups and councils. A Woolworths spokesman did not respond before deadline.
A spokeswoman for Gaming Minister Michael O’Brien said the government would maintain regional caps while not introducing more pokies in Victoria.
“This means that as the population of areas such as Greater Dandenong increases, the number of pokies per adult will decline.”
He said the government was investing $150 million in tackling problem gambling.
It had banned ATMs in pokies venues from July 1 and would introduce pre-commitment technology in 2015-16.
