The Victorian Government has been accused of a fire sale in issuing 10 year pokies licenses for a sum many believe is well below their market value. The auction of 10 year licenses to run 27,500 pokies machines was expected to fetch $3 billion, but the actual figure ended up well short of this at only $981m and has resulted in some fierce criticism being directed at Tony Robinson, the Victorian Gaming Commissioner.
Robinson has been quick to react to the criticism, citing the falling profits that gambling operators are now facing given the increased regulation required of the industry in Australia that has seen ATM’s removed from pokie venues as well as the dramatic impact that the smoking ban has had on gaming venues.
Commenting on the auction, Tony Robinson was keen to explain that the reduced license fee goes hand in hand with a tightening of regulations in an attempt to solve the issue of problem gambling. He goes on to say….
“If money had been our bottom line in this, then yes there were other policy choices that the government could have made that would have returned a greater dividend. But at all times we have been motivated by what is the right thing for Victoria, and sometimes good policy costs”
The actual results of the auction makes happy reading for pokie operators with the average machine license costing only $37,000 over 10 years. However, some licenses went for as little as $5,500, equivalent to $550 per pokie machine per year. Not surprisingly, the opposition party are calling the auction a disaster.
Commenting on the deal, Ted Baillieu, the Opposition Leader…..
“They have paid a fraction of what was been expected to be paid for these poker machines. This has been a financial disaster for the tax payers but a huge jackpot for the big gaming venue operators.”
The licenses come into effect in August 2012, though pokie operators are able to pay the fee as instalments over the next 7 years, a process that some critics have claimed is effectively offering an interest free loan to gaming operators.
But the action doesn’t appear to have ended with the hammer coming down in the auction room. According to an article in today’s Sydney Morning Herald title ‘Pokies auction a financial disaster for Victoria‘ one of the aims of the auction was to break the duopoly currently held in Victoria by Tabcorp and Tatts, and a legal challenge by both these companies against the Victorian Government worth up to $1 billion is in the pipeline.
Source: Online Pokies Club
Tags: aussie pokies, australia, Australian gambling
This entry was written by Nena on Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 at 6:24 am and is filed under Blog, News.
