Vapes for young members could be an alternate revenue stream?
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Well they havenât exactly improved it
The clubs have probably already got cigarette vending machines - clutch those pearls in horror!
Once again to this group & anyone thinking of voting for them - the only outcomes are that either the club profit around $3m from the pokies & from running the venues & in turn the club uses that profit to help fund social benefits like attending schools, sports clubs, visiting hospitals & remote aboriginal communities OR Bruce Mathieson pockets a few extra mill & the club runs at a loss & has to cut programs. I think youâd have to be really deluded to somehow imagine the alternative is better.
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Imagine how much worse it could be without them
Or you could take the view that businesses that associate themselves with good things attract success.
Not saying Pokies are the be all and end all in that, but it certainly fits a vibe.
The less integrity weâve had, the more short-cuts, the less weâve been front and centre in being a good corporate citizenâŚthe completely â â â â â â â weâve been.
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Given the social harm that they cause, and increasing awareness and public sentiment against them, itâs only a matter of time before governments tighten regulations on the pokies industry that reduce their profitability. Surely it would be best for us to get in well ahead of that, transition to alternative income streams, and sell the licenses before they decrease in value? If these licenses are so important to our viability as people keep arguing, isnât it a bad thing that all our eggs are in that basket? Diversification is a smart investment strategy.
No one is saying we should get rid of them tomorrow, but itâs critical that we begin the transition now. The resolution proposed by NoPE simply aims to hold the club accountable for that transition. Up to now, all weâve had from the club on the issue is lip service.
I donât buy the argument that if theyâre legal, then weâre all good. What if tomorrow the government announces a plan to ban them in 5 years time? Good luck getting that $60 million back. Better that Bruce Mathieson is saddled with them instead.
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Theyâve already started, new laws are reducing spending and slowing down time between games. Thatâs a direct hit to how much money each machine makes, and how valuable the license is
The club having literally no plan whatsoever to exit them is nothing but negligent
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How do you know they have no plan?
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Maybe they do. Since thereâs no disadvantage to telling members and supporters about it, I guess they could be idiots instead
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There are always smarter ways politically to achieve a result, usually you donât see them until after an election goes pear shaped.
It is a given that to get 75% of voters to agree with you that need a very strong case and good luck. Facts are the both Windy Hill and Melton Club have lots of regular patrons and while some of us are sympathetic with the plight of problem gamblers, the narrative of âsocial harmâ does not really make much impact to those who can control their own gambling.
So the arguments need a more directed and selfish approach. Firstly, while it is the Board and CEO who are responsible for income streams, perhaps NoPE needs to actively suggest not just a moral argument, but a financial one, where the asset relating to pokies can give a better return elsewhere.
I have not calculated the ROI for Melton or Windy Hill pokies but it doesnât look that marvellous to me on reported figures. Call it 10%, which could be generous, but there are other business opportunities that give more, at less social risk. If EFC had invested $10 million in Tesla shares, when it was fighting with Melton Council to extend the lease, it would be now worth $200 million. CEO et al make look at this but I âbetâ they donât. The experiment into gaming did make a profit, but what has happened since.
Reportedly a number of EFC people made bulk money from property development, pity they didnât get the Club involved. If you have the available money, there are many ways to get very strong returns.
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From the Don the Stat zoom call last night:
âSo you pretty much got a couple of people who are actively, not full time, but pretty full time trying to figure this out and make it work. Weâre looking at things to do around the hangar, out at Tullamarine. Things, extra businesses we can do in and around out there that would complement what weâre doing.
Thereâs a couple of things that are in the pipeline that are quite good and that weâve progressed this year. You sort of canât talk about them too much because theyâre in confidential conversations and you canât come out and you donât want to come out and talk about them either if they donât happen. So youâve got to be sensitive with all this stuff.
But it occupies an enormous amount of time at board level because we know weâve got to try and grow this alternate revenue because itâs just something weâve got to do to be able to survive as a football club long term. Itâs funny because I think about it a lot, but what would help our finances most is if we won some finals. We won a grand final.â
From Don The Stat: Don The Stat - Question and Answer with Essendon President Dave Barham, 27 Nov 2024
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Just on this general point, as it gets made a bit, but thereâs a reason why pokies attract this kind of focus and itâs not some slippery slope towards taking away all your fun.
The rate of money lost on them by people suffering from addiction is much higher. Tim Costello recently quoted in an op-ed 63% of money lost on pokies comes from people who are addicted. I havenât seen the source for that figure but leading gambling researcher Charles Livingstone told a government inquiry last year it was at least 45% and almost certainly upwards of 50%.
Alcohol sales are much more tightly regulated and, having worked in pubs and gaming venues in the past, my experience is that responsible service of alcohol is much easier to meaningfully practice than responsible service of gambling. That is, you can cut someone off if theyâve had too much to drink. When it comes to gambling, you can encourage people to cash out, even that youâll pop their winnings into the draw and they can come back the next day once theyâre not in the zone, but ultimately you canât stop someone from blowing more than they can afford.
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Essendonâs venues operate under a club licence, not a pub licence. You canât transfer the machines from one to the other - so if Essendon were to get out of pokies, which by the way this resolution doesnât make them do, their machines would go to someone else who operates under a club licence (e.g. another sporting/racing club, RSL or other community based group) and who would receive the same tax incentives to fund social programs.
The regulations are clear that they cannot go to a Bruce Mathieson type pub operator.
Beyond that though the rest of your argument relies on an assumption that Essendon just quits pokies without any alternative in place. NoPE have never called for that.
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Dave also makes a good point of how it is dangerous to change the constitution as some are pushing for it to be changed to include wording along the lines of âThe club acknowledges this causes harmâ.
It is essentially an admission of guilt and could be used against the club in future litigation.
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we are so â â â â â â financially without pokies. how depressing.
thatâs not how it works
We should take our 400k profit and put it in the pokies and see how much it will grow!
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So if I use the specific example of Collingwood - if we sell our licence to the Melbourne Racing club, a venture who exists to promote gambling and the suffering of animals, how exactly will there be any community benefits?
Hawthorn sold theirs to the Oscars hotel group who are a privately owned hotel group effectively no different to Endevour group who owns many gaming venues and Mathieson is a shareholder.
I get that NoPE will not transparently disclose their full intentions but in the spirit of gambling Iâm willing to bet you that acknowledgement that pokies causes social harm is not the end game here
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I thought that was kind of obvious though
I think most rational people would agree that if the revenue from gaming could be replaced with an identical revenue stream (or even better, one more profitable and less risk averse), and it didnât disadvantage the club in doing that, then we should do that as soon as possible.
This is just a means to an end to get the club to do literally anything towards achieving that goal
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I think most rational people realise finding that level of revenue and profit is not a simple task for an organisation. Iâm sure everyone here would be open to hear your and this groups ideas on how to do that but until we see a viable alternative I canât see benefit in allowing a change in the constitution that would be used to leverage an outcome not in the clubs best interests.