2 September 2010

Have you had a letter from the Labor Club?

| johnboy
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Here at RiotACT we hear the Labor Club’s been sending letters out to members asking them to vote on attaining more poker machines.

If you’ve got a copy we’d love to have a look.

A scan to john@the-riotact.com would be lovely.

Cheers,

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I believe the only club in the ACT without poker machines is the Polish-Australian Club in Turner.

Although, Gold Creek Country Club in Nicholls has recently ended its relationship with poker machines and the Kaleen Sports Club which was operating them at Gold Creek.

More power to them both.

PM said :

Bosworth said :

I’ve heard friends say that it is comercially non-viable to operate a sports club in canberra without pokies. Is this true?

Depends. If a sports club without pokies were to compete against a sports club with pokies, it wouldn’t survive very long. If there were fewer pokies across the board, however, I’m sure they could survive (as they used to survive in the past).

So, the only possibility for the existence of a pokie-free club is severe or complete legislative restrictions?

nanzan said :

As a Catholic I will always be utterly ashamed to the core of my soul that my church has aligned itself with poker machine clubs in this country, and that, in this city, it owns, through the Canberra Southern Cross clubs, the largest network of clubs in the territory with the largest number of poker machines per capita.

What possible connection there is between Jesus of Nazareth and poker machines (in, until recently, smoke-filled rooms) I will never, ever be able to fathom. Instead of hiding behind the facade of generating funds for charity, the Church should hang its head in shame.

And yet you still support that greedy hypocritical organisation?

Nanzan said: What possible connection there is between Jesus of Nazareth and poker machines …

Possible answers:
Pull the whole lot down in a fit of rage: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2021:12
And then there’s the famous boord of vipers speech raging against hypocrisy:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew 23

There’s probably more, but that’s just a quick google.

As a Catholic I will always be utterly ashamed to the core of my soul that my church has aligned itself with poker machine clubs in this country, and that, in this city, it owns, through the Canberra Southern Cross clubs, the largest network of clubs in the territory with the largest number of poker machines per capita.

What possible connection there is between Jesus of Nazareth and poker machines (in, until recently, smoke-filled rooms) I will never, ever be able to fathom. Instead of hiding behind the facade of generating funds for charity, the Church should hang its head in shame.

housebound said :

Wests at Jamo has been a dive for years, even after the renovations.

Yes, but it used to be a much smaller place, with “good” club food (ie not bad and cheap), and the pokies all in a section you could ignore.

Now it is HUGE, with crap expensive food, lots’a pokies and sucks.

It started to go down hill when they removed the squash courts. 🙂

Bosworth said :

I’ve heard friends say that it is comercially non-viable to operate a sports club in canberra without pokies. Is this true?

Depends. If a sports club without pokies were to compete against a sports club with pokies, it wouldn’t survive very long. If there were fewer pokies across the board, however, I’m sure they could survive (as they used to survive in the past).

<rant>

neanderthalsis said :

Skidbladnir said :

…each machine rakes in over $60k cash revenue per annum.

Mrs Neanderthalsis and I do the occasional cheap monday/tuesday steak offering with the hordes of others at the Belco labour club. You would say that this would be peak trade for the club…

No I wouldn’t.
My guess would be that peak demand is on pension days, paydays and maybe weekends.
Belconnen Labor Club has the highest per machine income in the Territory, so regardless of when you visit the club and see the machines empty, the machines are being intensively farmed on at least a few nights per week.
For every night that there’s nobody playing, there’s a different night where the machine sees over average demand to compensate.
Canberra Labor Club in FY08-09 had 272 licensed machines currently.
They reported they received $16,400,228 in total GGMR (Gross Gaming Machine Revenue) in FY08-09
.
“GGMR is the total of all moneys inserted into machines less winnings to players and approved amounts set aside for the payment of linked jackpots.”
IE: $60,294.96 pre-tax cash per machine each year.
Throughput needs to be $602,949.56 per machine to allow this, with total throughput around the $165mil mark (my estimate assuming a 90cent per each dollar return to player).

neanderthalsis said :

…cheap monday/tuesday steak…the dining room is full and the trivia is packed, yet you see very few people on the pokies.

By your own admission, your sampling bias is being there on the nights that people with a cost-sensitivity for “a cheap feed or honest entertainment ” are sufficiently motivated to have a night out.
Pokies aren’t cheap or honest entertainment.
They’re legally allowed to take money from people, at a rate up to 17 cents on the dollar.
To cash out a ‘win’ on a machine, the pool of users needs to have put in more than that already, so you’re already talking about people with a pocketful of disposable cash.
(So I’d suggest visiting on paydays or weekends if you want to see people burn through money, see earlier comment about intensive pokie farming…)

</rant>

neanderthalsis1:41 pm 02 Sep 10

Bosworth said :

I’ve heard friends say that it is comercially non-viable to operate a sports club in canberra without pokies. Is this true?

Also, I have a question to those that complain about pokies: What are the possible solutions to the pokie problem?

Simple solution: blow up the pokies and drag them away.

I’ve heard friends say that it is comercially non-viable to operate a sports club in canberra without pokies. Is this true?

Also, I have a question to those that complain about pokies: What are the possible solutions to the pokie problem?

Wests at Jamo has been a dive for years, even after the renovations.

neanderthalsis said :

I saw many RSls and sports clubs in QLD change from family friendly clubs with goodish bistros and facilities to seedy gambling dens through packing the place full of pokies.

It happened to Wests at Jamo. I suspect a chart of the last 15 years would show a inverse correlation between the number of pokies (and their prominence in the club) with customer satisfaction (well, my satisfaction anyway, but this is the internet, so I am pretty confidant it is all about me).

neanderthalsis11:48 am 02 Sep 10

Skidbladnir said :

My bet will be on a line of reasoning that is vaguely something like the below:
“Currently the gamblers at the Belconnen Labor Club are using the existing machines at near capacity, and people enjoy playing our games. They love it so much that each machine rakes in over $60k cash revenue per annum.

(IE: Mostly lies.)

Lies indeed. Mrs Neanderthalsis and I do the occasional cheap monday/tuesday steak offering with the hordes of others at the Belco labour club. You would say that this would be peak trade for the club given that the dining room is full and the trivia is packed, yet you see very few people on the pokies.

I saw many RSls and sports clubs in QLD change from family friendly clubs with goodish bistros and facilities to seedy gambling dens through packing the place full of pokies.

My bet will be on a line of reasoning that is vaguely something like the below:
“Currently the gamblers at the Belconnen Labor Club are using the existing machines at near capacity, and people enjoy playing our games. They love it so much that each machine rakes in over $60k cash revenue per annum.
They will cost the Club $X to acquire and licence, but will generate pure profit within the same financial year as we buy them.

We fail to draw any attention whatsoever to our ongoing contributions to the Labor Party.
Anyway, lets all band together and give those who enjoy\want\play the machines what they want, namely renting some scrolling lights and electronic music for a while. They are in no way addicts.
We currently donate more than that laughable minimum we’re required to by law, so you game players can keep supporting community sport by gambling harder.
We also throw some small change to the problem gambling organisations and women’s sport because its useful as a contributions dodge, but not enough to make any real difference.

Failure to vote the correct way (“Yes”) on this issue will mean that we don’t get to expand in an otherwise competitive market, will be forced to remove money from our building maintenence budget, and will threaten to reduce our community commitment back to the mandatory 7% NGMR minimum (ie: 3.87% of GGMR) instead of the voluntary extra bit (4.55% GGMR) that we currently pay.

PS: We’ll jack up the prices of beer and food.”

(IE: Mostly lies.)

amarooresident39:56 am 02 Sep 10

I believe it is a requirement of the Gaming Machine Act 2004 that clubs that want to acquire more machines or transfer existing machines must seek the approval of club members, hence the vote.. The total amount of machines in the ACT remains the same (5200 from memory).

Division 2.5 Section 24 is the relevant bit.

http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/a/2004-34/default.asp

merlin bodega9:28 am 02 Sep 10

So we have the highest number of poker machines per head in Australia, the gin-palaces the Labor Party owns aren’t big enough and we need to get even more poker machines so they can rip more money out of the disadvantaged to fund the maintenance of their unelected party officials in the ACT? I can’t wait to read the reasoning for this in my letter.
The real stoush at the Labor Club at the moment is control. The factions are manoeuvring for a vote at the Labor Club by encouraging more of their members to take out a full voting membership for $50 per year instead of the non-voting social memberships at $5. If you can’t afford to pay then someone will pay it for you if you promise to vote the “right” way if you know what I mean.
What can it hurt to have the sheep write a few letters in support of more pokies. Why not free ice creams for the kiddies as well?

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