Today has been interesting, I have had many discussions about my stance on the poker machine increase issue many of them supportive.
One conversation contemplated 'the good old days' of clubbing in NSW.
There were pokies in the clubs- but not the massive gaming rooms of today-many of the machines were 'one armed bandits' at 20c a spin (or 10 or 5c) and people were surprised when they changed and you could put a 'goldy' in.
The clubs were often 'the' place to be on Friday or Saturday nights- in fact some towns seemed to specialise in one night or the other.
My old local used to have a fantastic sports bar, to play pool, darts, cards, even table tennis. It was cheap entertainment and lots of fun challengeing your mates to a once a week match of madness.
The upstairs bar had a 'crooner' for the older set.
and the auditorium had a fantastic disco or live band. The bands were excellent and often were the talk of the week, especially at footy/hockey/softball training.
If you were asking club punters why they went to the club, entertainment would have topped the list, followed by flirting and drinking, pokies didnt seem to figure as much, not many people would have answered "I go to the club to gamble".
But the club landscape seems to have changed.
Clubs seem to be now dependent on gambling money to keep them alive, many clubs have reduced their entertainment spaces to put in more pokies and its the gaming rooms which dominate the atmosphere of clubs.
Sure clubs sponsor sports, they give venue's free of charge, and put money towards community grants, but what I would like to see is a bit more transparency in the accounting.
Yesterday, I asked you to have a look at the clubs financials, what did you find?
Well what I found was that it was quite difficult to tell what percentage of a clubs income went back to the community. How much lost revenue on special deals for community- and because these things are tax deductable- what kind of deduction was attributed for these good deeds.
Also you would have noticed that clubs report their poker machine revenue differently.I thought Milton Ulladulla Bowling Club were very clear with their poker machine trade
2011 2010
Gross Clearances 5,378,285 5,185,199
Less: Payouts (3,454,629) (3,317,359)
Gross profits before deductions 1,923,656 1,867,840
Donations & Sponsorships 9,080
The directors are also clear in their opinion on poker machine reforms
"Following the Federal
Election in August 2010 a “deal” was made between Julia Gillard and Andrew
Wilkie the Independent member for Tasmania to introduce mandatory pre
commitment for poker machine players. The Club Industry is facing a very
uncertain future. I urge all members to fully support your local clubs and
Clubs NSW in their efforts to stop this unwanted policy from being
implemented." Robert G Bell Chairman
This is just an excerpt from the full picture Click the link to go to statements.
So perhaps a little reform in the reporting is required so that it is easy to compare one club to another with their Gross Clearances less payouts and actual income per number of machines.
Also some clear reporting on donations and sponsorships would go a long way in helping the community decide what level of commitement the club has to the district.
After all- if the community think that the club has strong links and should have access to more poker machines the appropriate submissions can be made.
Meanwhile I think the status quo of no more new machines should be addhered to.
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