Random Note 206,543
At the risk of sounding like a wowser and I really don’t care but this is outrageous. And we’re not talking about Star City but a suburban RSL for Christ sake.
Notice how this insidious and diabolical activity is dressed up in the language of marketing and designed to skirt around the real language and the truth and tragedy behind the activity.
It’s “an entertainment pursuit” and pokie players are “consumers” and pokies are a “product”
Then there’s “loyalty” programs, (you know like Coles Fly Buys) and how gamblers, sorry, consumers dollars poured into pokies is an “outlay” or “a spend”. Even “harm minimisation” gets a run.
Anyone in suburbia dropping $300,000 a year into pokies in a suburban RSL has a serious problem and the RSL is an enabler, straight up. They are running a racket and are no better than a prostitutes pimp hiding behind the cloak of respectability afforded by the words, Returned Soldiers League.
And of course the governments of either persuasion won’t act because their respective parties are on the take via political donations. In an anaemic, vanilla, jellyback, horse shit statement, Toole the Minister said;
“NSW clubs and hotels can offer gaming machine player reward schemes but must comply with harm minimisation laws. Liquor & Gaming NSW investigates complaints about gaming machine player reward schemes and takes compliance action where necessary,”
Cut & Paste and link to the full story below..
…Punters who attain “diamond” status at the northern beaches club are being offered reserved parking, a red carpet into the gaming area from the car park, 80 per cent discounts on food and drinks and a “personalised hosting” service.
A diamond member must accrue 30,000 status points every six months, which, according to terms and conditions, translates to $150,000 in gaming turnover. A “platinum-plus” player must turn over $75,000 in the same period, or $150,000 a year. For those people it causes an issue for we look after them but it is not our job to judge what a consumer pays for a product. If they enjoy it and they can afford it, that’s their choice,” he said.
“We are talking about people who are probably bankrupting themselves to achieve platinum status. We are talking about people who are burning through life savings and or redundancy cheques and or inheritances – even their own homes,” he said.
Mr Livingstone said loyalty schemes meant gambling establishments had detailed data on how much people were gambling and should be forced to act when someone was in over their heads. RSL pokie punters rewarded for gambling up to $300,000 a year