I have blogged about this before but given that blogging appears to be the last thing on the mind of my colleagues, I have the liberty to thump the same tub again.
En route from Australia (warm in winter) to Manchester (damp in summer), there is time to ruminate on a 26-hour flight about the state of the gaming machine market Down Under. It has, as I have said before, probably the most defensible position against the tribes of moral autocrats and do-gooders – usually politicians trying to appear morally haloed.
For those who have not been subjected to this rant before, Australia’s gaming machine market is dominated by slots in public places. Sounds dreadful. But they are mostly in private members’ clubs. Every Australian community has them… returned servicemen’s league, miners clubs, social clubs, sports clubs, whatever the excuse for it, they make a club. A small membership fee and the amenities of the club are yours.
When you go into them you find subsidised beer, subsidised (very high quality) food and sumptuous surroundings. They have concert rooms for local schools to use, playgrounds, all kinds of community-conscious benefits – and all paid for (well, mostly paid for) by the slot machines.
So the profits from the machines go directly back to the members, supporting and benefitting the local community. If you are going to have gaming machines – and most countries now accept that it is inevitable – then the Aussie template takes some beating.
Well, you would think so. There is no multi-billionaire or huge international corporate conglomerate pocketing the profits. Yet there is an almost continuous furore of condemnation. One politician after another gets on his or her feet and hopes to dominate the headlines (they feed a receptive press) with demonising gambling. The relative innocence of the Australian template evades them when it is set against an international example.
It is very frustrating for the industry in Australia (and New Zealand) and nothing less than bewildering for those of us who travel to Sydney for their big trade show. You feel like picking the politicians up by the ears and giving them a good shake but, in fairness, you can probably say that of politicians all over the world.
Rant over.
