Pokies losses rack up

The Tasmanian Greens today revealed that losses from poker machines in Tasmania totalled $18,875,750 in August, slightly up on the previous month.

Greens Gaming spokesperson Kim Booth MP said Gaming Commission figures published on the Treasury and Finance Website said August also saw another five misery-inducing, family-wrecking poker machines installed in Tasmania, bringing the total number to 3709.

“At a time when many in the community are experiencing hardship, it’s an absolute disgrace that poker machines are still being rolled out,” Mr Booth said.

“Tasmanians have collectively lost close to a quarter of a billion dollars over the past 12 months, with a significant proportion of this coming from problem gamblers in low socio-economic areas.”

“How could any political representative anywhere possibly defend this type of cruel exploitation, especially at a time when the cost of living is increasing?”

“The Greens favour a complete ban on all poker machines from the state, but until we can achieve that we plan to plan to move to require Tasmanian casinos to pay a proportion of their profits into the Community Support Levy, in line with the requirement already in place for pubs and clubs.”

“It’s been calculated that this measure would generate approximately $3.5 million in state revenue each year.”

“This would ensure that Federal Hotels, which owns the monopoly licence in Tasmania, would be required to do more to alleviate some of the poverty and suffering its casinos help create,” Mr Booth said.

Reference: Electronic Gaming Machine Expenditure by Rolling Year, Dept of Treasury and Finance:

http://www.treasury.tas.gov.au/domino/dtf/dtf.nsf/6044ee0c1cf958a2ca256f2500108bba/cd36bfc11d136484ca2575e10006e703?OpenDocument