This week, the ClubsACT board met to discuss the possibility of Casino Canberra adding poker machines to its gaming floor. While the government continues to consider the possibility, the clubs industry is furious over it. In 2012, ClubsACT and the local government signed a Memorandum of Understanding.
The document noted that the government would support the community-based gaming model, in which clubs and pubs are the only venues permitted to offer pokies. Now, the government is considering allowing pokies at Casino Canberra, and the clubs industry sees this as an about-face.
“The entire club industry expects the ACT Government to abide by the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding which was designed to give clubs certainty over the current term of government,” says Jeff House, Chief Executive of ClubsACT. “Any decision to grant the casino a license to operate gaming machines is a clear and unequivocal breach of that written agreement and a breach of faith”.
Mr House believes that adding new pokies to the casino will have a negative impact on the clubs industry. The casino wants to add 500 new pokies, which may draw players away from local clubs, harming their profits and cutting into pokie profits that are used to fund community initiatives.
He continues: “Regardless of the casino’s intent, gaming machines in the for-profit Canberra Casino will be used by Canberrans at the great expense of not-for-profit community clubs. The profits will go offshore as opposed to the money spent in clubs which remains in the ACT”. This is certainly a contentious topic. The government and the clubs industry are at odds over bringing pokies into Casino Canberra.
This debate will likely continue to carry on, and we will keep you posted as the government nears a decision on whether or not to allow pokies in the state’s only casino.
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