Colin Kruger
December 10, 2012
The Age
BETTER known for selling bread and milk, supermarket operator Woolworths is rapidly emerging as one of the world’s biggest pokies operators.
With 11,700 machines in operation across Australia, Woolworths’ pubs and gambling venture, ALH, runs more poker machines than six of the largest casinos in Las Vegas combined.
And what it earns from its gaming arm has changed significantly in recent months.
According to one industry estimate, Woolworths is now on track to earn more than $200 million a year from gaming. This means its gambling earnings will nearly match that of Australia’s fourth-largest listed gaming operator, the Tabcorp-spinoff Echo Entertainment.
The earnings kick has been triggered by changes to Victoria’s poker machine licence system in August this year, which smashed the monopoly of gambling giants Tabcorp and Tatts.
What was not known at the time is that the largest single beneficiary is Woolworths.
Woolworths’ ALH arm now operates more than one-third of the poker machines in Victoria’s pubs – 4677 machines – which is near the maximum allowed under current licensing arrangements.
Last month Woolworths shareholders rejected a proposal by GetUp! and pokies reformers to install a $1 bet limit across the company. A 2010 Productivity Commission report on problem gambling suggested $1 bets as a good option to help reduce problem gambling.
According to investment bank Citi, ALH generated $140 million in earnings before interest and tax last year. The new licence model in Victoria will see it generate an additional $72 million in annual earnings. ”Profitability … should increase dramatically as per the new arrangements,” Citi analyst Craig Woolford said.
The big change is that the $2.6 billion spent annually on 27,500-odd pokies in Victorian pubs and clubs will no longer be split between three parties.
Tatts and Tabcorp have been removed from the equation and the spoils are now split between the state government and the pubs and clubs that act as owner-operators of the pokies on their premises.
Woolworths has committed to spending more than $164.3 million on poker machine entitlements, and a further $26.2 million on new machines. Indeed, Woolworths now operates 16 per cent of the poker machines in Victoria when the 2500 operated by Crown Casino are included in the statewide figures.
”The $164.3 million amount is in effect paying for the [gaming machines] that we already have,” a company spokesman said.
The Baillieu government expects to receive $1.12 billion from taxes on pokies this financial year, but it faces more than $1 billion in legal claims from Tatts and Tabcorp over the controversial decision not to compensate the two companies for the loss of their licences.
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