NRL has the real problem
Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2017 9:45 pm
IT’S not that I don’t admire Tim Costello. We are a better nation for people being prepared to stand up and advocate for changes that will improve the lives of those who are least advantaged.
But Tim’s sense of direction sometimes lets him down. He raises a valid point when highlighting the role of pokies revenue in professional sport but weakens his position by taking aim at the wrong code.
Don’t get me wrong, the AFL needs to do far more in respect of gambling and its influence on the sport we all love. Its embrace of sports betting, for example, makes many of us feel uncomfortable.
As a sporting code, however, the reliance of its clubs on gaming revenues pales by comparison with what’s happening north of the border.
Tim’s Alliance for Gambling Reform wants to cure AFL clubs of their dependence on gaming revenue.
How bad is it? Collingwood, regularly cited by the campaign, earned $21.6 million from gaming and function centre activity in 2015-16 out of total revenue of $71.5 million. This is equivalent to just over 30 per cent of the club’s earnings. If you think that demands action you’ll be ready to riot over what’s been going on in NSW.
In the NRL, dependence is virtually complete. The Canterbury Bulldogs are the standout, having raised $77 million from pokies in 2014 out of $87 million in revenue.
That’s right, almost $9 out of every $10 comes from the money locals put through endless rows of machines.
By comparison that’s a dependency three times worse than Collingwood’s.
And it’s not likely to slow down. Fellow NRL club Parramatta was able to report in 2015 that its gaming revenue, $54 million out of a total of $82 million had grown by 7 per cent in the preceding year, much higher than the CPI.
So if commentators reckon the AFL clubs’ collective pokies dividend is a problem demanding an answer, surely it ranks as a secondary problem behind what’s going on in NSW where NRL teams are making hundreds of millions from pokies.
Not that it should surprise anyone even half interested in pokies reform. Years before the privatisation of assets became fashionable, NSW governments of both persuasions sold the state’s collective conscience on poker machines. And they’re still at it.
While the Brumby government pushed ahead with reforms around municipal limits, reduced maximum bets and the removal of ATMs, NSW buckled at the industry’s discomfort with the revenue impact of smoking bans and let machines be relocated to designated smoking areas.
When it comes to getting a balanced approach to poker machines Aussie rules leaves the NRL in its wake. Labor’s earlier reforms limited AFL clubs to no more than 420 machines, vastly fewer than they can acquire in NSW, a state that has almost 100,000 machines in operation, three times the Victorian number.
The Victorian tax rate is also much higher, Labor setting a top marginal tax rate for clubs of
50 per cent. Compare this to NSW where the government delivered a tax cut not too long ago resulting in a rate of less than 30 per cent.
So let’s get some focus into the debate and redirect the crusade to where it is desperately needed.
The fact that NSW governments have allowed the NRL to effectively become a franchise of the pokies industry shouldn’t stop the case for change being made.
Focusing the effort on Victorian AFL clubs, where dependence is constrained by sensible changes, simply allows this northern travesty to continue unabated.
Tony Robinson was Minister for Gaming in the Brumby Government
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinio ... 194e6806fb
But Tim’s sense of direction sometimes lets him down. He raises a valid point when highlighting the role of pokies revenue in professional sport but weakens his position by taking aim at the wrong code.
Don’t get me wrong, the AFL needs to do far more in respect of gambling and its influence on the sport we all love. Its embrace of sports betting, for example, makes many of us feel uncomfortable.
As a sporting code, however, the reliance of its clubs on gaming revenues pales by comparison with what’s happening north of the border.
Tim’s Alliance for Gambling Reform wants to cure AFL clubs of their dependence on gaming revenue.
How bad is it? Collingwood, regularly cited by the campaign, earned $21.6 million from gaming and function centre activity in 2015-16 out of total revenue of $71.5 million. This is equivalent to just over 30 per cent of the club’s earnings. If you think that demands action you’ll be ready to riot over what’s been going on in NSW.
In the NRL, dependence is virtually complete. The Canterbury Bulldogs are the standout, having raised $77 million from pokies in 2014 out of $87 million in revenue.
That’s right, almost $9 out of every $10 comes from the money locals put through endless rows of machines.
By comparison that’s a dependency three times worse than Collingwood’s.
And it’s not likely to slow down. Fellow NRL club Parramatta was able to report in 2015 that its gaming revenue, $54 million out of a total of $82 million had grown by 7 per cent in the preceding year, much higher than the CPI.
So if commentators reckon the AFL clubs’ collective pokies dividend is a problem demanding an answer, surely it ranks as a secondary problem behind what’s going on in NSW where NRL teams are making hundreds of millions from pokies.
Not that it should surprise anyone even half interested in pokies reform. Years before the privatisation of assets became fashionable, NSW governments of both persuasions sold the state’s collective conscience on poker machines. And they’re still at it.
While the Brumby government pushed ahead with reforms around municipal limits, reduced maximum bets and the removal of ATMs, NSW buckled at the industry’s discomfort with the revenue impact of smoking bans and let machines be relocated to designated smoking areas.
When it comes to getting a balanced approach to poker machines Aussie rules leaves the NRL in its wake. Labor’s earlier reforms limited AFL clubs to no more than 420 machines, vastly fewer than they can acquire in NSW, a state that has almost 100,000 machines in operation, three times the Victorian number.
The Victorian tax rate is also much higher, Labor setting a top marginal tax rate for clubs of
50 per cent. Compare this to NSW where the government delivered a tax cut not too long ago resulting in a rate of less than 30 per cent.
So let’s get some focus into the debate and redirect the crusade to where it is desperately needed.
The fact that NSW governments have allowed the NRL to effectively become a franchise of the pokies industry shouldn’t stop the case for change being made.
Focusing the effort on Victorian AFL clubs, where dependence is constrained by sensible changes, simply allows this northern travesty to continue unabated.
Tony Robinson was Minister for Gaming in the Brumby Government
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinio ... 194e6806fb
