The new Melbourne City Council is thinking of making some big changes to the way in which the city’s only casino is taxed. Stephen Mayne is taking a lesson from pokie venues that are regulated by other councils, and hopes to increase Crown Casino’s taxes in order to provide more support for local problem gambling initiatives.
A similar was idea was presented last year to Melbourne’s previous City Council, but members were not on board with the idea. With new members in tow, the council has a renewed interest in charging Crown Casino more in gambling taxes. The idea was inspired by poker machine venues across the country. In many jurisdictions, taxes have been increased for these venues.
Since there is the potential for problem gambling to take place at poker machine clubs, it seems fair that they would pay higher tax rates in order to provide more funding to responsible gambling programs and problem gambling assistance initiatives. Should the council be successful in its push, Crown Casinos will have to pay an additional $8 million per year to operate its pokies and casino games.
As it stands, it seems quite fair, since the casino pays just $1 million in rent to the city, despite holding a valuable exclusivity deal. While the proposal has been met with some criticism, quite a few politicians have showed their support. Councillor Ken Ong stated that he would stand by the increase if it could be proven that the additional tax profits would actually be used to benefit problem gambling programs.
Support was also expressed by Councillor Richard Foster, who stated that he is in favour of any plan to help problem gamblers and curb gambling addiction rates in the country.
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