By Charlene Gatt
PUNTERS have pumped $58.794 million into the City of Maribyrnong’s poker machines in the last year.
The latest figures from the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation (VCGR) show the municipality’s 12 licensed gaming venues brought in at least $4 million each month over the 2008/09 financial year.
Machines went into overdrive over the silly season, with a year-high $5,427,577.79 spent in the month of December.
Braybrook’s Ashley Hotel took the biggest slice of the pie with $11.158 million slotted into their 50 machines.
Yarraville Club Cricket Club ($10.161 million) and the Highpoint Taverner ($8.435 million) also raked in the big bucks, while Maribyrnong’s Anglers Tavern ($663,385) took in the least with its 24 machines.
Venues in the City of Maribyrnong took in over $58.1 million during 2007/08.
Expenditure has steadily risen in the City of Maribyrnong despite the State Government removing nearly a quarter of the municipality’s gaming machines at the end of 2007.
According to VCGR data, the average nett poker machine expenditure per adult in Victoria is $649. In Maribyrnong the expenditure is $1148 per adult. “What we know is that even if you cut quite substantial numbers of machines out of an area, the problem is the (other) machines simply work harder,” Department of Health Science lecturer and gaming researcher Dr Charles Livingstone said.
“Removing machines simply gives the operators more incentive, especially in hotels, to increase their turnover significantly and they can do that through a whole range of measures, like marketing.”
Dr Livingstone said, although the increase in expenditure was minimal, it was “an awful lot of money coming from an area of disadvantage”.
He said it was likely changes to gaming legislation in 2012 would drive venue operators to be more aggressive when marketing their machines because of the substantial money they would have to fork out to purchase gaming licences.
“I don’t see the changed circumstances resulting in less problem gambling; in fact, I think there’s a very serious potential that it could result in more problem gambling.
“I don’t think the government has thought through this process terribly well and I think there’s an awful lot of detail yet to be resolved.”
