By Belinda Nolan
BRIMBANK punters poured more than $124 million into the city’s pokies machines last year.
Latest statistics from the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation reveal at least $124.4 million was gambled away in Brimbank’s hotels and clubs in 2010, with December’s figures yet to be calculated.
Between 2009/10 the municipality’s 15 gaming venues pulled at least $9 million each month, with patrons at the Deer Park, Kealba and Taylors Lakes hotels the city’s biggest pokies spenders.
Losses peaked in July 2010, with gamblers pumping $12.47 million into the city’s machines, making it the most profitable month for venue operators.
Expenditure on Brimbank’s Electronic Gaming Machines remains well above the rest of Victoria, with an average of $981 spent per adult, compared to the Victorian average of $611.
From 2012 the number of pokies machines in Brimbank is set to increase from 953 to 993 after gaming machine entitlements were dished out during a state-wide auction last year.
Brimbank’s venue operators splurged more than $53 million to get their hands on the lucrative machines, with The Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group, which owns the Deer Park, Glengala and St Albans Hotels the city’s biggest spender, forking out almost $11 million for 180 machines.
New regulations introduced by the State Government will break a 16-year duopoly held by Tattersalls and Tabcorp, with gaming operators set to get a bigger slice of the pie.
Hotels and clubs will keep 70 per cent of gaming profits, with the State Government to pocket 30 per cent.
Meanwhile the Werribee Plaza Tavern has become the highest earning pokies outlet in the state, as the amount gamblers splurged in Wyndham rose to more than $89 million across 12 months.
The Tavern earned $19.1 million during the 2009-10 financial year.
