TOP 25 POKIES HOTELS IN NSW TAKING MORE THAN $253 MILLION PROFIT PER YEAR FROM VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES: NEW DATA

New data reveals the top 25 hotels making the most profit from poker machines in NSW take a staggering $253 million in pre-tax profit per year from vulnerable communities [1].

The figures show:
*  the top 25 hotels for pokies profits took $486,538 per week from communities in the 2016/17 financial year alone.
*  El Cortez Hotel in Fairfield tops the list, taking the most in pokies profits in NSW in the past financial year.
*  13 out of 25 hotels in the top 25 for pokies profits are in the Fairfield and Canterbury/Bankstown local government areas.
*  Woolworths owns three of the top 25 hotels, Pritchard Hotel, Cambridge Tavern and Smithfield Tavern, all located in Fairfield.
*  all of the top 25 hotels are in the Greater Sydney metropolitan area.


NSW Greens MLC Justin Field said behind the mega profits from poker machines revealed by the data today is the immeasurable harm caused to people, families and communities.

"The $253 million lost to addictive pokies in the top 25 hotels is no accident, these machines are designed for addiction and making profits from people and communities," he said.

"The vested interests in the hotel industry continue to push to wind back regulations on gambling. It's long past time Government reined them in and put people before pokies profits.

"Pokies are the new tobacco. They are both highly addictive products with powerful lobby groups pushing in their favour and covering up their true impacts. The changes in social acceptance of smoking and in favour of regulation of tobacco over recent years offers a way forward to reduce the harm from poker machines as well.

"NSW must counter the tactics used by the hotels and clubs to protect their mega-profits from the pokies. That requires an acceleration in the overall reduction in poker machines across the state while putting limits on the capacity of existing machines to strip money out of communities such as $1 bet limits.

"The balance has swung too far in NSW in favour of the gambling industry and pokies venues, now the NSW Government must stand with communities and protect them from these addictive machines," Mr Field said.

The Greens and Alliance for Gambling Reform will present a free screening of the documentary Ka-Ching! Pokie Nation at Fairfield Youth and Community Centre on August 30, followed by a discussion on gambling harm. More details: facebook.com/JustinFieldGreens

<http://facebook.com/JustinFieldGreens>

Full list of State Rankings by Gaming Machine Profit for Hotels (June 2017 Quarter end): http://bit.ly/2ilTmGM

[1] http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/revealed-117m-pokie-profits-for-top-sydney-pubs-20170820-gy045f.html

 

22 August 2017