BY JESSICA ROUSE

The NSW Greens have unveiled just how much communities in the Hunter are being ripped off when it comes to the money being made from poker machines by hotels and clubs.

It’s been revealed a staggering $1.1 billion has been put through poker machines at Hunter pubs and clubs during the last three months of last year and only small portion of the gambling income goes back to the community.

They’ve purchased the data, which wasn’t publicly available, and revealed throughout the state in the last quarter of last year the data also found:

– poker machines took nearly $2 billion from the NSW community

– each club-based poker machine removed an average $19,638fromthe community, each hotel-based poker machine removed $28,358

– the average turnover from machines in hotels and clubs is $217,936

-there are an average of 62 poker machines per club in NSW and average 15 machines per hotel.

NSW Greens MP Justin Field says buying the data has brought to light a serious problem in the Hunter.

“And what was seen in Newcastle just in the last three months of last year, $438 million went through poker machines in the Newcastle local government area. That’s a loss to the community of $43 million. They’re huge figures – we’ve got a pokies problem in NSW and in the Hunter.”
The Greens say the problems with how the industry operates, its transparency and how the money is taxed, needs to be fixed in order to put an end to the societal breakdowns and the huge impact on Hunter families.

“It would be appropriate for more tax to be paid so that tax can be put into services to support those people suffering addiction. At the moment the grants that are provided by some of the pubs and clubs for community projects actually offset their tax liabilities as well so there is a range of problems,” said Justin Field.

He also said with such huge figures only a fraction of a per cent of the profits go back into the community through grants “and you can think about how many additional school teachers and  nurses and new infrastructure could be built with that level of money.”