Woolworths is one of the largest poker machine operators in Australia, and the company aims to attract more players by offering up a rewards and loyalty scheme. While the program aims to benefit players, anti-gambling campaigners are not pleased with it. The loyalty scheme is called Monty’s Rewards. By joining the program, players receive a rewards card.
Whenever they make purchases are certain venues, they will earn points for every $50 or $100 they spend. While these rewards cards normally apply to tangible purchases, such as food and drinks, Woolworths is now applying it to poker machine spending. Now, players can earn rewards points by playing pokies.
For every $50 they spend on pokies, they will earn rewards points which can then be redeemed to gift cards and other perks. The card also offers some harm minimisation measures. Players can setting betting limits; however, they are only in place for 24 hours, which makes it unlikely that it will offer any long-term benefits to problem gamblers and at-risk players.
“People like loyalty programs,” says Jane Garrett, Victoria’s Minister for Gaming. “They like them at their coffee shops, they like them on their plane trips, they like them at their local restaurants – of themselves, loyalty programs are not bad,” Responsible gambling advocate Nick Xenophon has spoken out against the new loyalty scheme.
He argues that the card encourages players to gamble in order to earn perks from Woolworths. “What was meant to be a harm minimisation measure has been turned by Woolworths into a harm-exacerbation measure by using this card,” he says. “This isn’t so much a loyalty card as an addiction card”. This is quite a controversial issue, but it seems that the loyalty program will remain in place. There are no signs that it will be pulled anytime soon.
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