‘Financial misery’: Essendon fans urge club to abandon pokies
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A group of Essendon fans has penned an open letter to the club’s CEO, urging the Bombers to abandon their “predatory” poker machine licences where gamblers lost more than $10 million last financial year.
But Essendon has given no indication of any changes in the near future, stating that if they were to walk away from the lucrative revenue stream, it could risk the financial stability of the club.
Essendon fans have penned an open letter to Craig Vozzo, the club’s CEO, describing its pokie machine licences as “predatory”.Credit: Justin McManus
The grassroots “No Pokies at Essendon” (NoPE) group launched on Monday to campaign against the 190 poker machines the Bombers operate across two venues in Melbourne’s outer suburb of Melton.
Essendon are among four clubs in the AFL that currently own gaming venues – alongside Carlton, Richmond and St Kilda. Collectively these clubs own eight gaming venues and 670 poker machines where gamblers lost a total of $29.8 million between July 2021 – June 2022.
Essendon owns the gaming licences at two venues – Windy Hill, which has 101 machines, and Melton Country Club, which has 89 machines. The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission data shows that between July 2021 – December 2022, gamblers lost more than $17 million across the two venues.
“Put simply, the revenue Essendon is raising from pokies is coming from the social and financial misery of disadvantaged people,” a statement from NoPE said.
The group’s president, Mike Read, 37, is a lifelong fan of the Dons.
He said the open letter, addressed to Vozzo and published to the group’s website, was their first move, with future campaigns to come.
But with only 11 members so far, Read acknowledged it could be a “long fight ahead” to successfully campaign for the club to find alternative revenue streams.
“Poker machines are predatory, they are designed to be addictive, and that addiction can be destructive not just for those directly experiencing it but for the people close to them too,” the letter read.
“The origins of many sporting clubs, such as Essendon, lay in the desire to improve the health and wellbeing of the communities from which they were born. Through its ownership of poker machine licences, the Essendon Football Club is instead profiting off the weakening of the communities where it operates.
“Essendon will never be a great club while it continues to own poker machine licences.”
‘Put simply, the revenue Essendon is raising from pokies is coming from the social and financial misery of disadvantaged people.’
The letter had 42 signatories at the time of writing.
In response to the letter, the club said the financial losses it suffered as a result of COVID-19 were the primary reason it continues to rely on the revenue generated from its gaming machines.
The grassroots “No Pokies at Essendon” (NoPE) group launched on Monday to campaign against the 190 poker machines the Bombers operate across two venues in Melbourne’s outer suburb of Melton.
“Any decision on the long-term future of our venues will need to be carefully considered by the board,” an Essendon spokesperson said.
“The financial stability and independence of the club is paramount, and we won’t compromise that by making a rushed short-term decision.”
Read said some members of NoPE had previously emailed the club to express concerns about the poker machine licences, but did not receive a response. Essendon did not respond to questions from The Age regarding these emails.
“When I was younger, I worked in a pokies venue and [saw] first hand some of the destruction they can do for people,” Read said of his motivation to form the group.
“Just seeing the lengths that [addiction] took people to … it really stuck with me.”
In 2018, Melton City Council approved a 29-year lease extension, allowing Essendon to continue operating Melton Country Club and its 89 poker machines until the end of 2047.
That extension was the subject of scrutiny from both gambling reform advocates and the then-president of the AFL Fan Association. In response, then-CEO Xavier Campbell told The Age the club had identified several alternative revenue streams to eventually allow it to reduce its reliance on gaming.
Over the past four years, five AFL clubs have weaned themselves off poker machines: Collingwood, Geelong, Hawthorn, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs.
NoPE’s formation comes at a time of mounting pressure from both the government and the public for Australia’s sporting codes to reduce their reliance on gambling revenue.
In March, the annual AFL Fan Association survey, revealed exclusively by The Age, found 47 per cent of the almost 3000 respondents nominated gambling advertising when asked to select all their concerns from a list.
Federal opposition leader Peter Dutton earlier this month called for a ban on gambling commercials an hour before and after sports matches. Dutton said outgoing AFL chief Gillon McLachlan and NRL boss Andrew Abdo had a moral obligation to reduce their gambling revenue streams.
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