WILLIAMSTOWN Football Club says a local high school will benefit from a new gym if five more pokies are installed at Newport, but a gambling researcher says the move is “like Robin Hood in reverse”.
As reported by the Weekly, the club applied to Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation to install five more pokies at its Seagulls Nest Hotel. The hotel is near a Centrelink office and less than two kilometres from social housing.
Hobsons Bay Council last week voted to make a submission to the commission “expressing concern for any increase in gaming machines”.
The council’s gaming policy “supports the reduction of EGMs and opposes additional EGMs . . . particularly where an increase of EGMs is demonstrated to have a negative impact.”
But Strand ward’s Cr Peter Hemphill told the meeting that the council’s pokies policy was ambiguous. “I note the policy also says — which seems to be at odds with the last statement — that all EGM applications will be considered against their ability to demonstrate comparative community benefit.”
Cr Hemphill moved an alternative motion “that council make a submission to the VCGLR that while expressing its general concern about any increase in the numbers of electronic gaming machines at the Seagulls Nest Hotel in Newport, that it supports the application by the Williamstown Football Club.”
However, the motion lapsed when it failed to get a seconder.
Football club president Trevor Monti said that in 1996, Seagulls Nest had 66 machines, so the club was seeking to reinstate its original number of machines, not increase the number. He said Williamstown High School wanted to build a gymnasium but had no money to do so. The club’s players also needed a gymnasium. “We would be prepared to substantially fund the planning, building and development and fitting out of a gymnasium, which would be obviously a long-term asset to the school and, of course, to ourselves,” Monti said.
“Now, we can only do that if we’re operating a profitable gaming venue.” He said five more machines would not contribute to disadvantage in Newport. “The difference is so minute, it’s ridiculous to even be arguing about it.”
But Monash University’s Charles Livingstone said the average machine generated $65,000 a year. “So, five machines would make, what, $325,000 a year? They may well be making what looks like a generous contribution, but set against the amount of money that the machines make for the club and, importantly, the amount of harm they can generate in the community, it’s not a very good deal.
“Indeed, not only is it robbing Peter to pay Paul, it’s Robin Hood in reverse.”
