Features
Population drives pokies push
31st March 2010
HAVING more than 130 operating poker machines is not enough for Tewantin-Noosa RSL.
The club has applied to the State Government to install another 46 machines.
That would bring the total number of machines in its gaming lounge close to 180.
RSL chief executive officer Phil Stephenson said scoring more “pokies” had been a long-term plan, with a growing population driving demand.
The application was lodged in July last year and it could be another two years before the machines were delivered.
Mr Stephenson said $232,000 from the machine gains had been donated to the community this financial year alone, along with supporting the club’s adjoining RSL sub-branch, which has 500 members in its own right.
With the moratorium on gaming machines announced two years ago, the number of machines in Queensland will not change.
The installation of 46 machines at the RSL would mean other clubs across the state have either ditched theirs or closed down.
The notoriously long process still has a lucrative outcome. Queensland Government statistics show that in the six months to February this year, more than $66 million was pumped into our 3501 machines.
That is $200 for every one of the 330,000 people in our region, although at least 85% is returned to punters through winnings.
Machines deliver about $400 profit each month, and with 180 of them, Tewantin-Noosa RSL would turn over about $860,000 a year.
Mr Stephenson said the club donated $2000 from each machine’s profits to charity and said an improved RSL would only benefit the community.
“Without additional machines, it’s much more difficult to make the expansions we have in mind,” Mr Stephenson said.
“It will enable us to expand and the market tells us the need is there.”
Submissions to the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation close on April 14.
The big punt
- $66.3m: How much was put into our 3501 machines in six months to Feb 2010.
- $201: How much every person on the Coast would have to put into pokies to achieve that amount.
- $9.9m: Turnover from pokies if 85% of bets were refunded as winnings after six months.
What do you think of poker machines? Have your say in our comments section below.
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Recent comments on this article
what a community minded mob the management at this paycheque cashing outlet
just what people really need more bloody pokies to rip off more money from more people
and what do places like this do to return money to the community? they build bigger clubs and put in more pokies
give up guys
Hmmm...the pokies have a payout of 85%. I wonder how much of those 85% payouts is just put back in to the pokie machine by the players.
And so they should have to put a percentage back in to community services. At least the pokie widows/widowers and their children will have somewhere to go for help when they can't buy food and have no money to pay the electricity bill because their selfish, gambling spouses/parents have put the money through the pokies.
they should be banned altogether - they ruin so many people's lives, and are so unsociable - if other states can manage without them then why do we need them - get rid of them all i say!
Rather than increase the numbers they should countenance a new business model that does not prey on people. Less Poker Machines Now.
i don't see why people criticise the pokies, or any form of gambling really.
at least the RSL is giving a bit of money back- i havent heard of any bookies donating money, lately, or ever!
a lot of pokies revenue i am sure is from Centrelink payments anyway, so the Govt giveth, and the Govt taketh away
Didn't we just survive a recession?
Don't get me wrong, I myself am guilty of having a $50 flutter once every 4-5 months but I can either take them or leave them.
Families are ripped apart by machines, children go hungry, people become homeless and assets are lost due to irresponsible gambling.
Get rid of them all.
This story sits in strange juxtaposition to yesterday's advertorial "Lotto adds $5m to Coast pockets" urging punters to cash in on the Coast's "lucky streak".
Pokies are the biggest scourge on Australian society. Alex surf club has recently been refurbished ... and yet guess what takes up 30% of the new floor space .... pokies!
It's laughable!
In the U.K. pokies - aka fruit machines are limited to 2 or 3 in a pub and they are essentially a time filler - whilst waiting to do other things - like play darts - or play pool ... or socialise with mates. What has happened to Australian society, such that this level of anti-social / addictive behaviour has become acceptable? In fact - the norm?
Personally I think there should be a limit to the number of pokies an establishment can have... Problem gamblers need to be monitored at the establishment level... Too many families are being destroyed, too many kids are going hungry... Another thought is make the pokies card only - BUT NOT A CREDIT OR DEBIT CARD - the player would purchase a pre-paid card with a specified amount and once that's run out that's it...
Poker machines are a blight on our society;I would like to see them limited instead of banned.Some people will always gamble in some way;I would encourage people to spend on entertainment like the cinema,dining out or buying luxury items if they find themselves with spare cash.This RSL is just chasing extra profits and adding more misery to the lifestyle of to many people.
I haven't been to the Tewantin RSL club in a while... how many nights would you see 180 people at the club lining up to play the pokies at the same time?....
sounds like a lot of machines for the amount of people in the club "on average"....
fewer machines with a time limit on each machine so no one player can sit on the same machine all night... in the hope it will eventually pay out enough to get their money back.. if ever... then players could wait a while until a machine becomes free again....
180 people socialising with eachother would be a better outcome.. instead of 180 people hypnoticly staring at the blinking lights ....throwing money away...
I have a problem
with pokies and gambling so I just don't go into places with them. Would these places with pokies be able to survive without them? Have they over committed and now THEY have to keep chasing the gambling dollar to break even? Dunno but wasn't live music always going to be a healthier and much more social pastime at these venues. Now it's hard to find live music because it detracts from the main event POKIES. That's if there's any room left in the venue for a stage. Who polices responsible service of gambling? Will someone come up to me when I've put my second thousand dollars through and ask if I can really afford it? After I make the sixth trip to the pubs atm will an employee suggest I've gambled Too much?
Population growth does not mean a drive for more poker machines just a drive for higher profits for the clubs and pubs.So called RSL clubs should admit that their prime function is gaming and they should be re classified as the casinos they really are and be taxed accordingly!
What is the difference between a pub selling more alcohol to a drunk and a gambler putting his families rent and food money through the poker machines at the local RSL.
They both have a bad outcome.
The RSL is more than happy to take your money.
St. Vinnies and the Salvo's will tell you how much they deplore pokies, as they have to help out the families of the gamblers.
Dosen't the Tewantin Rsl Have to donate money to the community first in order to get the extra pokies??? So would they be donating money if they didn't want more pokies???? A cunning plan!
What a load of marketing bull say that the increase in the population is pushing the need for more pokie-machines.
Add to this the number of Surf Clubs (casinos) on our beachfront not paying general rates. Not a cent !
Meanwhile all of us ratepayers are paying for many Council Lifeguards.
Every time they rattle the tin at me at the traffic lights it makes my blood boil.
Bill Hoffman should expose this and the $400, 000 that Mooloolaba surf club reported spending on "building maintenance" alone.
That's if they are not some sacrosanct protected species which has become unmentionable and under the radar.
Open up the books of the supporters clubs and let's see where all the money is going, certainly not back into the community, which they spin to us as their mantra. Let's have a look at the elephant in the room.
Eagerly anticipating a response ... Bill or Ed.
The bad news for Stephenson is that an all-out campaign against pokies is being planned across Australia.
Watch out for the bumper sticker saying POKIES OUT; MUSIC IN.
With pokies gone suburban pubs will have to provide bands to attract young patrons, which will mean:
Young people can walk home from their dance music, instead of contributing to late-night road carnage from CBD clubs;
It is easy to sell drugs in CBD nightclubs, but difficult to do so in pubs with dance bands;
The violence freaks who lurk around taxi ranks and CBD backstreets, find it difficult to predate on pub patrons, due to the intimidating presence of the departing crowd.
The return to suburban rock music dance bands will provide many gigs for the currently starving but immensely talented local musicians.
CBD night clubs tend to alienate young people from the mainstream community, whereas suburban pub crowds become more integrated.
The stimulus to music may well return Oz to its 1984 status of having 7 hits on the global top 20.
To our usual gang of scoffers, think back to the early 1980s; which is how things were before the poker machine corporations paid our venal politicians to declare music noise pollution; to be replaced by quiet pokies.
Right on tonyryan
In Queensland clubs and hotels, electronic gaming machines are programmed to return between
85% and 92% of the amount bet to the gambler.
An 85% return means that for every dollar bet on a poker machine, 85 cents is typically returned
to the gambler. This return is achieved over the life of the machine, usually 3–4 years, and you
can’t expect to receive 85 cents for every dollar you bet in a single gaming session.
“Think about gambling as a business where you buy milk for $1 and sell it for 85 cents or where
you buy cars for $10,000 and sell them for $8,500. How long do you think a business like this
could survive?”*
http://www.olgr.qld.gov.au/resources/...
Go for a walk and spend the money in the shops. you will do more good for the place.
more jobs for more people
How Many People did lose there homes over the machines?