Woolworths chairman Gordon Cairns has responded to a whistleblower report that Woolworths’ majority-owned network of pubs have been spying on players and encouraging them to keep gambling on poker machines, or pokies.
Cairns said the matter was of the “highest concern” for the board of directors.
“I am determined as the chairman of Woolworths, as is the board, that we will get to the bottom of this,” Cairns said, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. “If the allegations are true, then we have let ourselves down.”
Cairns also declined to discuss the future of the companies pokie business.
“I don’t have an answer” he said. “Circumstances change, partnerships wane … I’ve come to realize I’m not very good at forecasting the future,” he said.
However, Cairns said, if ALH Group was found to have acted improperly, “both parties will fix it”.
“My sole focus is on making the partnership the strongest its ever been,” he said.
The ALH Group, a joint venture between Woolworths and billionaire businessman Bruce Mathieson, runs hundreds of venues with more than 12,000 poker machines nationally, according to the Morning Herald.
The report came from federal MP Andrew Wilkie who presented computer screenshots that appeared to show an ALH database containing details of regular pokies players’ gambling habits, drinking habits and favorite sports teams, and appeared to outline actions taken by pub staff to encourage continued gambling, the paper reported.
