Gambling researcher slams 'footy tax' claims

A leading gambling researcher has dismissed the the concerns of Club Australia, the National Rugby League and a number of AFL club chairman concerns over the Federal Government's planned restrictions on poker machines.

Dr Charles Livingstone of Monash University has labelling claims that the planned laws could hurt sporting clubs as "beyond belief" and "extraordinary".

Amid considerable lobbying by Clubs Australia and the NRL, Collingwood President Eddie McGuire last week labeled the proposed legislation as "footy tax" which will "hit football clubs right between the eyes".

Dr Livingstone has done a study of the AFL and poker machine revenue and says pokies are worth $30 million a year to Victorian clubs, a figure is expected to double from next year as clubs take advantage of new poker machine arrangements brought in by the former Victorian Labor government.

Dr Livingstone says the revenue stream from pokies pales in comparison to the record $1.25 billion the code is earning from the sale of its broadcast rights for 2012, stating "if you look at two examples, Essendon and Geelong football clubs, pokies provided 9.5 and 6.5% of their total revenue respectively.

So although it is a lot of money, it is not a huge slice of what they earn in any year."

Dr Livingstone says pre-commitment technology would not cause the clubs to lose all of that $30 million income from poker machines, adding "no-one knows for sure how much the impact would be but the best estimates I think are around 10 to a 15% range.

"To claim that pre-commitment is somehow going to scuttle the success of the AFL clubs is beyond belief. It is an extraordinary claim."

While the AFL is not backing the Club Australia/NRL campaign, it is opposed to the planned legislation, AFL Chief Executive Andrew Demetriou saying the code wants to "help raise awareness around problem gambling and actually tackle that issue, not put our clubs in jeopardy."

The AFL spokesman has also said that the code will not use this grand final week to campaign against the planned legislation proposal.

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, who has spearheaded the drive for mandatory pre-commitment, has hit back at McGuire's "footy tax" claim stating "he's a leadership figure in the community (and) should know better.

"He knows this is not going to be a tax on football, and he shouldn't use such inflammatory terms.

"It is not in the public interest and it is not the sort of behaviour we need from a leadership figure in the community and from the AFL."

Federal Families Minister Jenny Macklin welcomed the news the AFL was not part of a campaign against the reforms, stating "I think the AFL have demonstrated ï¾ that they agree with the Government that we have a duty of care to make sure we do everything possible to support people as they deal with poker machine addiction."