Time for Woolworths to take control of ALH, then exit pokies

The Alliance for Gambling Reform responded to the shocking revelations revealed by Andrew Wilkie
today by calling for Woolworths to exit its hugely damaging pokies business or risk a consumer
boycott across Australia.

“Woolworths should be ashamed of themselves and should exit the pokies industry before doing any
more damage,” said Tim Costello, Alliance director and lead spokesperson. “Spying on customers to
maximise profits from an addictive product is beyond the pale but now we know how Woolworths
manages to make so much more profit than other pokies venues.”

The Alliance congratulated the Woolworths whistleblowers and Mr Wilkie for exposing dubious
practices inside Australia’s biggest pokies empire ALH and called on both the Woolworths board and
state governments to take strong action.

Dr Susan Rennie, an Alliance director who ran for the Woolworths board at last year’s AGM, called on
Woolworths chairman Gordon Cairns to replace Roger Corbett as chairman of the ALH board and
take direct responsibility for the pokies business which has just announced a 17% increase in profit to
a record $163 million in the December half year. (see p9 of 42)

“Most countries prohibit pokies in pubs and clubs which explains why Australia has 76% of the world’s
pokies in pubs and clubs, with Woolworths the biggest operator of its type in the world with almost
13,000 machines which extract almost $2 billion from gamblers each year,” Dr Rennie said.
Dr Rennie said she was not surprised to read the latest reports of spying on gamblers to maximise
their losses based on the story of “Sarah” which she outlined to the Woolworths boards at the 2017
AGM. ( Watch video here: http://www.pokiesplayyou.org.au/wooliesagm2017 ).

“The Woolworths board can no longer ignore the appalling practices in its pokies division which sees
staff encouraged to maximise the losses of gamblers by collecting data on them and using tactics to
keep them gambling when they should be doing the exact opposite and behaving responsibly.”
Anna Bardsley, the former pokies addict who challenged the Woolworths board at last year’s AGM,
today said she was disgusted by these whistleblower revelations reported by Nick O’Malley in the
Fairfax papers.

“I used to gamble at Woolworths pokies venues such as the Village Green Hotel and the Wheelers
Hill Hotel in the City of Monash and now realise why the staff were being so nice to me,” Ms Bardsley
said.

“They were plying me with alcohol and trying to keep me there until 3am because it was good for the
Woolworths bottom line, even though I was suffering enormous harm.”

“Woolworths are clearly an irresponsible operator of poker machines because they try to maximise
profits from a fundamentally addictive and dangerous product. And the governments which joint
venture in this enterprise with Woolworths are engaging in nothing short of state-sponsored abuse.
They should follow the lead of Tasmanian Labor and enact policies to liberate Australia’s pubs and
clubs from the taint of pokies.”

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE WAY WOOLIES RUN THEIR POKIES EMPIRE
# The latest Woolworths pokies division profit was up 17% to $163m for the December half – which
was a record 11.46% of total $1.43 billion operating profit. Click here for full history of pokies profit
share since 2004. This only reflects 75% of the profit as pokies billionaire Bruce Mathieson owns 25%
of ALH.

# Woolworths controls 330 hotels across Australia (see full list) which are targeted on operating
dangerous poker machines for as many hours as possible as is legal in each state. In Victoria, 81 of
its 82 venues have pokies, even though only 18% of Victorian pubs overall have pokies. And just to
maximise the losses, Woolworths keeps 51 of its 81 Victorian pokies venues open the maximum 20
hours a day.

# Woolworths has the biggest pokies market share in Australia, snaffling almost $2 billion of the
nearly $14 billion lost annually on pokies (including at casinos) in 2017. Victoria is its most lucrative
state where it accounts for 25% of the losses in pubs and clubs ($669 million of $2.61 billion) but only
has about 15% of the 27,500 pokies across the 502 pubs and clubs.

# Australia has 76% of the world’s pokies in pubs and clubs because most countries go with
dedicated casinos or don’t allow alcohol and pokies to mix in suburban venues. There are
approximately 5000 pokies venues across Australia and 195,000 poker machines, amounting to 18%
of all pokies in the world. See recent Australia Institute report.

# The largely Sydney-based Woolworths board are not hands on in the ALH business, which is run
out of Melbourne. Indeed, none of the Woolworths director or even CEO Brad Banducci sit on the
ALH board which features 7 men and no women. See Alliance press release.

# Woolworths just won’t stop trying to expand its pokies empire. After a record 13 day VCAT hearing
against the Victorian Government and the City of Whittlesea last year, ALH recently lodged a
Supreme Court appeal against the refusal of its application to install 40 poker machines at the
heritage Commercial Hotel in South Morang on Melbourne’s northern fringes.

# ALH has erected blatantly political billboards on its 4 Tasmanian pokies venues during the
Tasmanian election campaign when Australia’s biggest retailer should remain politically neutral. It has
refused Alliance requests to take them down. It has been a contributor to the unprecedented deluge
of gambling industry advertising in Tasmania over the past few weeks.

# ALH reportedly paid for a cosy fundraising dinner at Young & Jacksons in Melbourne on July 4,
2017 which was attended by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews just three days before his Government
announced plans to issue new 20 year pokies licences which were subsequently legislated on
November 30 last year.

# The latest political donations data for 2015-16, confirms that Woolworths continues to aggressively
fund politicians and political campaigns as the largest corporate member of the Australian Hotels
Association, which is currently helping fund a deluge of pro-pokies advertising during the Tasmanian
and South Australian election campaign.
Stephen Mayne, Alliance for Gambling Reform