Page 75 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 14 February 2006
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government has been very clear that it will not change its policy, which quarantines poker machines to clubs rather than putting them in the hands of private businesses.
The ACT Greens have put on the record their ongoing concerns with poker machines and would rather see the number in the ACT reduced over time. The evidence is that the more venues there are and the more accessible poker machines are, the more likely they are to create problems, and by “problems” I mean problems for people. Of course, it is not just the people who play poker machines who can become dependent on them. There is now a whole clubs industry that is built on pokies and an ACT government that picks up $48 million in gaming tax. So the issue of dependency is a complex one indeed.
I understand that clubs do see themselves as significant contributors to the Canberra community. They provide social venues and a small proportion of their takings are returned in donations and grants to community organisations. But they undoubtedly are operated as businesses, and often quite large businesses. There are very few clubs in the ACT which serve the community development and support functions that were a part of the reason for the development of the ethnic and community clubs of early Canberra.
Given that the clubs do operate as businesses, they respond to issues such as the gaming law and regulation in terms of the impact on profitability. The fact that the profits go more or less back into the building, or into the Labor Party or a sports team, rather than into shareholders’ dividends, makes them a little bit different from private businesses, but increasingly less. I am making these comments in the light of the continuation in this bill of a ban on gaming machine licences for any body in the ACT outside of the clubs.
It is interesting then to note the concern felt by clubs when the elimination of indoor smoking was mooted in the ACT. Much has been made of the loss of gaming income that comes with the elimination of cigarette smoking in gaming rooms. I do not want to make light of a loss of income for any commercial operation. Income translates into people’s jobs, which, after all, is the point of business, to quote one of the early Myers. It is true that income includes taxes which support social services, among other things, and income provides facilities and activities for members, who are a part of our community.
Nonetheless, the nearest anyone from the clubs has come to acknowledging the value of reducing cigarette smoking, particularly passive cigarette smoking, for our community, their staff and their patrons is the often repeated comment that the bans have been accepted and the clubs will work with them. The lesson, it would seem, from the December ClubsACTion, the ClubsACT newsletter, is that improving customer service and encouraging an excellent staff attitude are still the best ways to soften the impact of smoking bans.
If we were then to take another step in reducing the number of poker machines, perhaps the same lessons would hold true. Perhaps a greater commitment to live music or other entertainment might deliver social and cultural benefits to Canberra as well and might encourage a different clientele, given that one of the concerns of ClubsACT is the dwindling numbers in the demographic that patronise their premises.
Given that this bill is about controls over the casino specifically and the rationale for ruling out gaming machines within it, it is disappointing that the government’s response is simply that there has been no change in its policy. I would hope that we can revisit the
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