Higher taxes if poker’s wings are clipped
Hoping to balance headlines about record-breaking pokie losses in Australia, manufacturers are talking up a new study that says the games generate $8.32 billion for the national economy every year.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, research about to be released by the Centre for International Economics found that yearly taxes derived from poker machines exceeded $5.5 billion and help to fund infrastructure and other public services. That’s information the public needs to hear, according to Gaming Technologies Australia, which represents gaming manufacturers like Aristocrat Leisure and Ainsworth Game Technology.
“So when the anti-gambling activists drive off down the pokies-funded road to drop their kids at the pokies-funded school, and when they have to visit the pokies-funded hospital, I hope that they remember that government revenue from gambling benefits all Australians, whether they like poker machines or not,” said Gaming Technologies CEO Ross Ferrar at a recent conference.
His attack on critics may backfire in light of skyrocketing losses among punters in Australia, who forfeited some $24 billion in 2017 alone. State governments expect those numbers to rise, the Herald reported, and are crafting their budgets accordingly. In the next few years, Queensland is expecting a 20 percent surge in pokies tax revenue from $684 million to $819 million. It’s revenues like that, the Guardian reported, that give the pokie industry such might; in a headline, the publication compared the poker lobby in Australia to the NRA in the United States. Ferrar said the states would suffer and Australians would pay higher taxes if gaming opponents had their “prohibition wishes” granted.
Allison Keogh, of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, said the harm pokies caused to the community “completely dwarfs” the tax revenue they produce. “The social costs of gambling, including family breakdown, relationship problems, domestic violence, and emotional and psychological distress, depression and suicide, are almost $7 billion per year in Victoria alone,” said Keogh, citing a recent study funded by the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation.
Long-time anti-gaming activist Stephen Mayne said Ferrar’s “delusional, denialist language about gambling harm” will do no good for his group’s member companies.
Meanwhile, the ACT government will bring in new reforms to address problem gambling by the end of the year, says Attorney General Gordon Ramsay. Guidelines will be clarified to help casino staff spot the signs of problem gambling and club employees and board members will undergo “better training more often,” Ramsay said. Regulation will be strengthened around enforcement, self-exclusion and the role of gambling contact officers, who are trained to help patrons in trouble.
And in related news, pokies in New Zealand are set to “pause” for one hour during Gambling Harm Awareness Week, September 3-9, 2018. Over 70 pubs and clubs in the country have agreed to be part of the “Pause the Pokies” program jointly established by the Problem Gambling Foundation, Mapu Maia Pacific Counselling Service and Asian Family Services in New Zealand.
“It’s great to be able to work with venues and community partners to raise awareness about harmful gambling, particularly pokies,” said Andree Froude, PGF’s director of communications. “There are five times as many pokie machines in the most deprived areas as the least deprived areas, so gambling continues to impact heavily on vulnerable communities.”
