Poker Machines Sydney

• Poker Machines Sydney Australia
• Video Poker Machines
• Poker Machines For Sale
• Poker Machines For Sale Sydney
• Video Poker Machine Used

We're for Sydney. HOME; NSW top pubs making profits with pokies. THE state's top 10 pokie pubs are raking in a combined $1.6m profit from the machines a week, making them one of the most. International Gaming Technology (IGT) is a world leader in the design, manufacture and supply of electronic poker machines, holding a 70% share of the gaming market. While it has become the number one gaming provider in the United States, IGT also has a strong focus on the Australian and New Zealand markets. Pubs Sydney: Poker Machines The Morrison February 10, 2016 by Tim Bufferton The Morrison Bar and Oyster Room 225 George St Sydney NSW 2000. 02 9247 6744 Reservations welcome via email or phone. Continue reading →.

NRL star Nathan Hindmarsh talks about his poker machine addiction

Pokie profits in NSW are more than a quarter of a billion dollars for the top 25 pubs, but the community is asking at what cost? Picture: News CorpSource:News Limited

TALK about hitting the jackpot.

NSW’s top 25 pokie pubs, all based in the greater Sydney region, raked in nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in profit in the past financial year, it has been revealed.

Liquor and Gaming NSW published the list of the state’s top 25 earners, with the El Cortez Hotel in Fairfield sitting in top place.

But there are warnings that the “mega profits” have come at significant community cost.

Thirteen of the 25 hotels are in the Fairfield and Canterbury/Bankstown region.

Fairfield, the city’s most disadvantaged area, demanded a freeze on new machines in clubs and pubs in at-risk communities in a submission to the state government.

The 25 hotels made a total of $253 million in poker machine profit during 2016/17, according to NSW Greens MP Justin Field.

The NSW government anticipates raising more than $100 million in tax from the top 25 hotels, Fairfax Media reports.

Mr Field says the hotels’ “mega profits” cause immeasurable harm to families and communities.

“Pokies are highly addictive products,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

“(There are) powerful lobby groups pushing in their favour and covering up their true impacts.” The Greens MP is urging the state government to protect the vulnerable and wants the government to consider $1 bet limits along with an acceleration in the overall reduction in the number of poker machines in NSW.

Fairfield City Mayor Frank Carbone in July called on the NSW government to stop investing in poker machines in his community.

Poker Machines Sydney Australia

Poker machine, gaming, gambling. Generic Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

Today, he again urged the NSW government to protect vulnerable members of his community.

Mr Carbone said while Fairfield is home to 2.6 per cent of NSW’s population it houses four per cent of the state’s poker machines and contributes nine per cent of tax revenue from pokies.

All this while suffering from unemployment rates double the state’s average, the mayor said.

“We urge the state government to correct the imbalance of tax revenue received from Fairfield City and to invest it back into the local community through the creation of jobs and infrastructure.”

ADDICTIVE PROFITS

NSW has half of Australia’s gaming machines and 10 per cent of the total worldwide, with about 95,000 machines across the state.

Players can feed in as much as $7000 into just one machine.

About $8.27 billion was gambled on pokies in Fairfield alone, and $80 billion played across NSW in 2015-16.

That’s around 55 per cent of the national total gambled on poker machines, which was $135.7 billion in 2014-15.

About 85 per cent of what punters gamble is paid out in winnings, but that still leaves a not insignificant $6 billion in revenue for clubs and venues in NSW alone.

State governments claim around 25 per cent tax on the machines’ earnings.

In Western Australia, pokies are restricted to casinos only.

In July, the Victorian Government froze the number of pokies in that state until 2042 as part of a suite of reforms.

Australia has the highest gambling losses per capita worldwide, dwarfing casino hub Singapore. An analysis by The Economist early this year revealed Australians lost more per person than any other nation in 2016 — a massive $1292, averaged out across the population, not just gamblers ($11.6 billion in total).

The reason? Pokies. Losses from the gaming machines found in pubs and clubs across the nation were bigger than the total per capita gambling losses of nearly every other country — largely because of Australia’s permissive bet limit rules, which allow punters to lose up to $1498 an hour.

REFORM CONSIDERED

NSW Racing Minister Paul Toole, who oversees Liquor and Gaming NSW, said the government is considering reforms to the scheme which examines the impact of gaming on communities and strategies to address negative impacts. “The government will be considering all the evidence during this process, not just numbers cherrypicked by the Greens,” he told AAP.

Meanwhile, new federal welfare measures announced on Tuesday — which are designed to stop job seekers spending taxpayer dollars on drugs — are to be trialled in neighbouring Canterbury-Bankstown.

They could lead to less money being pumped into the pokies, the federal government argues.

Anyone who tests positive for certain illicit drugs will have 80 per cent of their dole payment quarantined in a cashless welfare card.

“We hope (the final 20 per cent) is still used for the intent of which welfare was provided — rather than used at the pokies,” Social Services Minister Christian Porter told reporters

Mr Porter said a similar cashless welfare card trial at Ceduna in South Australia led to a dramatic reduction in the local club’s poker machine revenue.

SYDNEY’S TOP FIVE POKIE PUBS

1 — El Cortez Hotel, Canley Heights

2 — Railway Hotel, Lidcombe

3 — Markets Hotel, Flemington

4 — Eastwood Hotel, Eastwood

5 — Cross Roads Hotel, Casula

Updated April 26, 2020 20:17:21

The coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact on so many Australians.

If you or anyone you know needs help:

• Lifeline on 13 11 14
• Gambling Help Online on 1800 858 858
• Beyond Blue on 1300 22 46 36

Lives have been lost, jobs and businesses have been wiped out, and individuals have had to come to grips with being isolated from family and friends.

No industry has felt the strain more than pubs, clubs and casinos. From March 23, they had to close their doors at short notice, throwing the lives and livelihoods of tens of thousands of Australians into turmoil.

But for some Australians these closures have proved a blessing rather than a curse.

The Alliance for Gambling Reform says more than $1 billion has been saved in poker machine losses in the past five weeks.

ABC Investigations has been in contact with hundreds of people affected by problem gambling, and we asked whether coronavirus shutdowns have changed gambling habits.

Many of them have described the past five weeks as one of the most peaceful periods they can remember.

Here are three of their stories.

The mineworker

Corey* is a mineworker from Queensland. He knows too well the pain that a gambling addiction can cause.

Gambling: Tell us your story

ABC Investigations wants your help to find out more about what happens behind the scenes of Australia's gambling industry; to hear from people who have worked inside the industry and those who have lost money. Fill out our tips form here.

His father lost the family home through betting on the horses when Corey was a small boy.

'All these years later, it still causes fights in my family,' he said.

'Knowing my family history, I became a staunch anti-gambler. I'd never even bet on the horses.'

The 29-year-old avoided the issues his father had. Until July last year.

'My father got diagnosed with a form of dementia and I went into a dark place. I started drinking heavily and began to play the pokies.'

The Queenslander had been working hard as a fly-in fly-out mine worker and was saving for a home.

Within two months of taking up the pokies his $25,000 deposit was gone.

'I'd wake up at 10:00am, go to a pub or club, and play the pokies, sometimes until 3:00am.'

He would repeat this pattern during his week off in the city, before flying back to a mining camp to work for two weeks.

After another two months, he sold his prized 4WD for $17,000 to feed his new habit.

Soon that cash windfall was gone. With no money in the bank, and nothing else to sell, he started borrowing money.

By the time the lockdown started Corey owed the banks and same-day lenders close to $20,000.

'COVID-19 has been a blessing for me, with pubs, clubs and casinos closed, I've been completely unable to play the pokies at all,' he said.

He's now putting aside 80 per cent of his income to pay off his loans and feels that he has his gambling under control.

'Since the lockdown started, I created an online gambling account and put $100 into it. I lost that $100 straight away, so I haven't put any money back into it since,' Corey said.

'I'm hoping this is the end of my eight-month gambling habit. It's cost me so much, from my health and happiness, to pushing away friends for the sake of gambling — it's really impacted me on every level and set me way back financially.'

The mother

For Sonia, the 58-year-old mother of a pokies addict, the lockdown has been one of the best months of her life.

'It has been a blessing for me and my son because he's suddenly not being tricked, deceived and robbed by the poker machines,' she said.

Sonia's son John* has twice attempted suicide in relation to his gambling addiction.

'We are both experiencing a peace we haven't experienced for over a decade. I'm able to live each day without the constant fear that my son will try to take his life again.'

'He told me that God's answered his prayers with the lockdown, that a heavy weight has been lifted off him and that he feels like he has been set free.'

The 28-year-old has MS and is on disability pension. Sonia says at around 2:00am on a Saturday he goes to a local Sydney pub or club knowing his pension will be in his bank account by then.

'By the time the sun comes up he's lucky if there's anything left in his account,' Sonia said.

Once John blows all his money, Sonia has to make the most awful choice. Does she give him more money to help him get through the week knowing he will probably put it through the pokies?

Invariably she gives in.

'People ask why I give him money. It's because I'm scared that he might commit a crime to pay for his habit,' she said.

'You have to realise the habit overrules normal thinking. Do you know how many people are in jail because of a pokie addiction? I'm scared he could end up in jail.'

Sonia says she's on the verge of losing her house and has borrowed tens of thousands of dollars from the banks and from family to pay for her son's habit.

She says John has self-excluded from hundreds of venues, but they continue to let him in to gamble away his pension and his mother's money.

Sonia says she has used the lockdown to pay back money she's borrowed.

'In the past five weeks I haven't had to give him money. But it's so much more than the money, it's the emotional rollercoaster as well.'

Australia has the highest gambling losses per head of population in the world. Sonia hopes the lockdown will lead to a rethink on poker machine policy.

Over the past 25 years, she has held a number of senior positions in the manufacturing industry, and says that the absence of poker machines is not just good for the families of addicts, but for small business as well.

'Over $6.5 billion is lost to poker machines each year in NSW alone. If this money was spent in small business the economy would thrive and many jobs would be generated.'

Do you know more?

Please fill out the ABC Investigations gambling story tips form, or text message the team via the WhatsApp or Signal mobile apps on 0418 347 462.

The small businessman

Andrew runs a small business in rural Queensland.

Video Poker Machines

Much of his work is done on the road, and when he drives into a new town, he finds it difficult not to pass the local pub.

'If I'm driving for work, something in me gets triggered and I will drop into the pub and start putting money through the pokies,' he said.

The businessman finds himself being drawn to something he hates.

'I can't stand the pokies. But I started playing them 20 years ago when I was struggling with anxiety.'

Andrew suffered trauma as a child that led to anxiety in adulthood. In his late teens he started drinking, then playing the pokies, as he tried to deal with his past experiences.

'It terrifies me to think how much I have lost. Outside my food, my rent and my phone bills, I was probably putting around 60 per cent of my income through the machines.'

He says in the past month he's felt more at ease than any other time in the past two decades.

'This isolation has been an absolute godsend. Prior to the pandemic I was still visiting pokie rooms two or three times a week, but in the past five weeks I haven't even thought about pokie machines,' Andrew said.

'Prior to this, my anxiety levels were up and down constantly. Now, I'm so much more relaxed and less anxious.

'Today I had a beer and put $20 on the horses on my phone and I was content with that. Before I could pour $3,000 into the pokies in a couple of hours.'

Andrew is worried about what might happen when the pubs and clubs reopen.

'I do have concerns about what happens down the track, but my hope is that my time away from the pokies has given me strength and gets me to see what life is like without them.'

*Not their real names

Poker Machines For Sale

Share your gambling story with us

We know gambling is a widespread national issue affecting millions of Australians.
So, we want your help to find out more about what happens behind the scenes of Australia's gambling industry; to hear from people who have worked inside the industry and those who have lost money.
We assure you that any information you give us will be treated as strictly confidential. We won't publish anything you tell us, or identify you, without getting your permission.

Poker Machines For Sale Sydney

The ABC is using the Screendoor tool to collect your story tips. The ABC's Crowdsourcing Collection Statement applies to any information you provide.

Your questions on coronavirus answered:

Topics:gambling, clubs-and-associations, hospitality, covid-19, australia, sydney-2000, qld

Video Poker Machine Used

First posted April 26, 2020 04:47:10