$18 million lost on pokies in October

The Tasmanian Greens said pokies losses increased to nearly $18-million during October, the same month that the Labor and Liberal parties sided to block the Greens’ move to have casinos contribute to the Community Support Levy, which helps fund gambling harm minimisation measures.

Greens Gaming spokesperson Kim Booth MP said that figures published by Treasury today showed that total losses on the pokies in Tasmania during October increased from $17,722,704 in September to $17,931,467.

Mr Booth also pointed out that these latest loss figures take the total losses for the year to a staggering $177,406,939.

“During October, the very month that Labor and the Liberals gave Federal Hotels a massive win by voting to block the Greens’ move to have casinos contribute 4% of profits to the CSL, Tasmanians were losing almost $18 million on the pokies,” Mr Booth said.

“The first ten month of this year alone saw Tasmanians lose a staggering $175.5 million on pokies, and based on this distressing trend, the community is on track to lose over $200 million by the end of 2011.”

“Unfortunately when Labor and the Liberals had the opportunity to vote on a Greens motion to implement this measure last month, they instead chose to side with big business at the expense of the community’s most vulnerable.”

“There is no way to justify Federal Hotels being allowed to avoid paying into the Community Support Levy while its pokies revenue is increasing, and while other gaming venues do pay the levy.”

“Given the question mark now over the pokies pre-commitment deal between Andrew Wilkie and Julia Gillard, Tasmania should be taking its own steps to limit the damage from poker machines.”

“The damage caused by pokies and problem gambling no longer disputed and it is not good enough just to sit back and watch Tasmanians close to $18 million in a single month on these addictive machines.”

“Pokies are specifically designed by experts to create addiction using swirling lights, movement and sound. The money being fed into these greedy machines is money that is will never be spent putting food on the family table, heating the family home and putting children through school.”

Reference: Electronic Gaming Machine Expenditure by Rolling Year, Department of Treasury and Finance: http://www.treasury.tas.gov.au/domino/dtf/dtf.nsf/alls-v/CD36BFC11D136484CA2575E10006E703