Sport and Pokies

[Guest]

The debate about pokie restrictions clubs and sports like NRL seems to be heating up and reaching a new level in the media.

Over the years I have seen many friends family and work collagues adversely affected by pokie machine addiction.

I have played local football for over 30 years.

Local sport and football organisations like NRL roosters included will survive, without the proceeds of pokie revenue.

There are too many families out there that suffer from a father , mother , brother sister who are addicted to the machines, to use the fear that sports clubs will suffer if restrictions are introduced is an insult to the people who live day in day out with the adverse affects of knowing a person with this addiction.

I know he is not generally the most popular person on this site , but i have generally been a fan of Phil Gould.

I will never forget at the height of the Super league war how he took contol of a debate on the footy show and told those super league people to stop kidding themselves about news propoganda and that the war is only about tv rights.

History proved him right.

However

It was interesting to see that when Gould announced his acceptance of his position at Penrith this year that his first column that weekend in sundays paper was how pokie restrictions would destroy clubs like Penrith.

Phil ...with one hand ... Your club made Michael Jennings walk round penrith oval on a friday night as punishment for drinking while injured.

Phil ... you openly stated that families save a year to buy a team jersey out west or going to a game is a once a year treat.

I believe you with that comment families do that.

Phil .... with the other hand your club and other clubs openly take vast amounts of these struggling families money through pokies when there is a person with an addiction.

Oh the hypocracy...

Clubs will survive with pokie restrictions ... the panthers the roosters and even the local club i play for ... and even more to the point ... there are children out there who will survive better as restrictions will give their mum or dad who have an addiction a chance to break it.

[Guest]

How will these new restrictions change anything?

Supposedly there is a limit you have to set before you play, and all they will do is set the limit to what is in their pocket or bank account!

[Guest]

Pokies should be banned. Anyone thick enough to play pokies should not be considered legally responsible for their actions and must be protected by the government/law.

Pokies are the shame of Australia.

[rooster_booster]

Pokies are the shame of NSW. Killed the music scene. Killed the pub scene. Its just say to go into some of these soulless pokie rooms masquerading as pubs.

[Guest]

Pokies are the shame of NSW. Killed the music scene. Killed the pub scene. Its just say to go into some of these soulless pokie rooms masquerading as pubs.

Agreed. Clubs should be embracing the community and offering things for the community to do at the clubs. Pokies are all about taking from the community. It's no conincidence that Perth has no pokies and a very successful, vibrant music scene.

[chook 56]

I get to have a flutter on the pokies about twice a year. After I put $10 through them I am bored to tears. How anyone can sit there for hours at a time is beyond me.
Having said that, I have seen people that cannot help themselves & they are quite apparent when you start looking around these soulless rooms. It is an addiction that causes a lot of grief for families.
I don't think that these restrictions will make that big of a difference to those that are determined to gamble their hard earned $, but if it saves a few then well done.

[Guest]

Will make no diffrence to the community at all. People who are big gamblers will find ways to do there dough. All this will do is force people like chook 56 who puts a few bucks through the pokies now and then to not bother anymore. Screw Wilkie and his 1 man band.

[bondi-boy]

The difference it will make to the community is to toss lots of workers out of their jobs and onto the dole queues at Centrelink.

Clubs will go broke...St George Leagues club will have to spend $6m ...unaffordable its boss has said publicly.
Small clubs, bowling clubs...bye bye the jobs of staff.

TAB...horses, dogs, trots.
Sports betting agencies.
Online gambling.

Gamblers will just turn to them instead of pokies...as one former addicted gambler said he did...banned himself from clubs, but gambled online...many many options he said...hadley just read out his email on air at 2GB.
It wan't until the man decided to become un-addicted, confess all to his wife and family, and seek help that he was 'saved'.

Anyone who thinks NRL clubs can survive without grants from Leagues clubs is seriously misquided.

Many people play the pokies at their club, casually.

Problem gamblers can easily be identified by clubs without all this new regulation and cost, if they want to.


http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/new...-1226147341846

Panthers could bring down Penrith as losses force club to shrink


THE club industry giant behind the Penrith NRL team could be forced to offload a significant chunk of its sprawling empire as it battles multi-million dollar financial losses.

Internal documents show the Panthers Group will tomorrow close its West Epping franchise, with Panthers chairman Don Feltis admitting in a memo it is "economically unsustainable".

The group's losses hit $11.96 million last year - despite the fact it generated $154 million in revenue.

[Headless Chook]

The NRL clubs might survive, but what about all the smaller sporting clubs and organisations across NSW who rely on sponsorship from their local clubs? That will dry up big time. As for a vibrant music scene lol!!! Each to their own! If I go to a pub or club the last thing I want to put up with whilst having a schooner and a chat is some talentless band belting out a poor rendition of Khe Sanh!

[Guest]

Putting politics aside regarding the pokie restrictions, any restriction on personal freedoms is usually greeted with opposition and anger.

Addiction has very little to do with the outlet of that addiction. The fact that the restrictions, from what I've read, will not have an upper limit makes this an empty gesture.

[novice chook]

If the government was serious about tackling gambling additions, then why is it just concentrating on the pokies, other than the fact that's what that fool Wilkie has insisted on. There are various forms of gambling just as addictive as the pokies - horse betting for one.

I've never been a fan of pokies myself, although I'd have the occasional dabble when I was younger and they still had a lever rather than just the buttons they had nowdays. And I still remember they gave my mother hours of pleasure as she put her bags and bags of 5c through the machines. And then as soon as she got a decent win she'd cash it in and walk away, knowing it was only downhill from there. Our family had quite a few extras at Xmas and birthdays due to Mum's wins on the pokies, as that's what she'd do with her 'ill gotten gains', spend it on extras for us.

And what comes after legislating you must make a pre-commitment regarding how much you spend the pokies, a pre-commitment on how much you can drink or smoke of a night?? Please!!

As has been said time and time again, you cannot legislate to control idiocy, it is an impossibility.

NC

[Spanner in the works]

If you need to rely on pokies to survive as a club you have a shithouse business model.

[Guest]

If you need to rely on pokies to survive as a club you have a shithouse business model.

I think you just outed yourself as a Q&A contributor.

[Kramer]

If the government was serious about tackling gambling additions, then why is it just concentrating on the pokies, other than the fact that's what that fool Wilkie has insisted on. There are various forms of gambling just as addictive as the pokies - horse betting for one.

I've never been a fan of pokies myself, although I'd have the occasional dabble when I was younger and they still had a lever rather than just the buttons they had nowdays. And I still remember they gave my mother hours of pleasure as she put her bags and bags of 5c through the machines. And then as soon as she got a decent win she'd cash it in and walk away, knowing it was only downhill from there. Our family had quite a few extras at Xmas and birthdays due to Mum's wins on the pokies, as that's what she'd do with her 'ill gotten gains', spend it on extras for us.

And what comes after legislating you must make a pre-commitment regarding how much you spend the pokies, a pre-commitment on how much you can drink or smoke of a night?? Please!!

As has been said time and time again, you cannot legislate to control idiocy, it is an impossibility.

NC

Evereything NC said.
If you are going to legislate to change problem gambling, then do it accross the board not just pokies. Stop this form of gambling, & they will just jump to something else.
I'm not sure where Wilkie is coming from, maybe just a pet project for him, who knows!

[Guest]

If you need to rely on pokies to survive as a club you have a shithouse business model.

My thoughts exactly. If you need to dupe the mindless masses into making donations through poker machines to stop your business failing then you should not even be in business.