Cairns To Become the Australian Vegas
Ever wonder which Australian city could one day become the Australian equivalent of Las Vegas? Well you can out your mind at ease because in some recent decisions made by leaders of the Australian tourism industry cairns has been chosen to become the countries centre of poker machines.
More detailed information in the below article sources from News online:
CAIRNS would become Australia’s answer to Las Vegas under a controversial scheme to transform it into the national centre for poker machines.
The proposal is to be aired tomorrow in Brisbane at one of the tourism industry’s key annual conventions, Tourism Futures, to be attended by international tourism heavyweights and politicians, including Federal Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.
It is being put forward by breakaway Liberal National Party MP Aidan McLindon, who has spent years rallying against the spread of poker machines.
But Mr McLindon, who quit the party in May to form the Queensland Party, is now pushing for debate on a scheme that would create a Vegas-style gambling strip in Cairns by relocating poker machines from existing pubs and clubs across Queensland to a new “Aus Vegas” to be built in the region.
The Beaudesert MP first outlined his vision for a Vegas-style pokies hub to reduce gambling in April last year in his maiden speech to State Parliament.
It would copy the US model, where Nevada is the only state to have no significant restrictions against gaming machines.
Under the “Aus Vegas” proposal, clubs would have to sell their poker machine licences back to the Government or relocate their pokies to Cairns and become shareholders in the new enterprise. The state’s four major casinos would be exempt.
The plan would be supported by a shake-up of the current distribution of gambling funds collected by the State Government, with poker machine revenue instead being poured into recreational sports through a scheme that would hand sports clubs a cash grant for each child they put on the sports field.
“The location is ideal given the Cairns region is suffering some of the highest unemployment levels and the tourism industry is plummeting,” Mr McLindon said.
“It already has the international airport there, which is under-utilised. Ideally, you want them (gaming machines) all in one place so people can go away, have a holiday, blow their money and come home.”
But welfare groups fear the plan could turn Cairns into a “Sin City”, making residents the sacrificial lambs of the nation’s gambling problems.
Pokie Licence Sold For Over 1 Billion Dollars
The Victorian Government has raised almost $1 billion from the auction of poker machine licences.
Gaming Minister Tony Robinson said $981 million had been raised during the bidding process for Victoria’s 27,500 poker machines.
The much needed fund raised from this sale will now to funnelled into areas such as the health care system and bushfire initiatives.
The pokie licence was for a ten year contract and was set to be auctioned off, the bidding ended/closed yesterday at midday.
Mr Robinson said the new venue owner model would usher in an era of more responsible gaming with stricter controls and no “super profits” for operators.
Another Reason To Play Pokies Online
It was recently discovered that many of Australia largest poker machine companies have been doing some unusual business in an attempt to reduce the tax payable on their income. It is things like this that remind me of how online pokie sites are able to provide players so much higher payout rates. The costs for running poker machines in pub, clubs and bars in Australia is forever increasing however online gaming site costs are consistently being reduced.
The below article sourced from news.com.au makes light of a number of Australian poker machines operators and some of the strategies they are implementing in an effort to reduce their extremely high running costs.
AUSTRALIA’S biggest pokies operator faces an investigation over claims it has avoided more than $15 million in tax through controversial and secretive arrangements with sports organisations, including several AFL clubs.
In one deal, pokies firm Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group (ALH) has claimed a lower club tax rate for a gaming venue linked to the North Melbourne Giants – a former NBL basketball club that ceased to exist 11 years ago.
ALH has received a $167,839 tax discount and has claimed $103,912 in community benefit because the gaming area at its Richmond Tavern venue is listed as being operated by the defunct basketball club.
Almost $96,000 of the community benefit were operating and auditing costs.
The North Melbourne Giants Ltd is registered to the same address as ALH and lists the company as its contact in files sent to the Australian Securities & Investments Commission .
After learning that the Richmond Tavern holds a club licence, the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation says it will investigate claims that ALH is exploiting its venues’ club status.
AHL chief executive Ross Blair-Holt said the company complied with all legislation.
A Sunday Herald Sun investigation has found ALH, which is a joint venture between Woolworths and pokies kingpin Bruce Mathieson, has struck deals to operate more than 660 pokies in up to 10 venues registered as clubs.
The deals include arrangements with the Collingwood, Richmond, Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn football clubs.
The deals allow ALH raise its share of pokies beyond the cap of about 35 per cent of machines each operator is allowed.
Under Victorian gaming law, commercial operators of pokies pubs pay a 33.3 per cent tax on gambling revenue.
Clubs get an 8.3 per cent discount on the pokies tax and pay only 25 per cent to the State Government if they can demonstrate a “community benefit”.
Under the deals, ALH owns most of the venues and leases the pokies area to clubs. It then charges the clubs rent and a management fee to operate the machines.
Northern Territory Pokie Cut Back
Recent announcments show that the norther territories are currently in discussion for the revison to the number of pokie licences issued this year.
This change was initiated by the findings of a recent reports to that the NT population over the last financial year have put in excess of 170 million dollars through their poker machines in pubs and clubs. This news is quite intriguing considering that only recently was the number of allowed machines capped to 1190.
They said that if this cap had not been put in pace less than a year ago their forecast put almost double the number of machines in the NT by today.
This information is relevant to this site in that from experience these occurance across Australia in conjunction with other pokie room changes is causing more and more people online. This is good news considering the higher payout rates of online machines in comparison to macines across Australian pubs and clubs.
Online pokies reduce the risk of problem gambling
According to a recent report by compulsive gambling expert and social worker Howard Slayton, internet gambling may actually reduce the risk of a person being a problem gambler.
Slayton says “Land casinos create an environment that envelopes the customer, leading to disconnection with reality and opening up avenues for problem gambling impulses to take over. But online casinos have no such atmosphere.”
He continued, “Every detail at brick and mortar casinos is designed in minute detail to lure in players and trap them. Nells and whistles confuse while giving an otherworldly air to gambling floors, lending an illusion of escape to a colourful and inviting world. Clocks and windows are absent, preventing the sudden injection of reality they might generate.”
He explained that online casinos do not offer this kind of shielded experience, allowing players to stay grounded. “Online casino play is subject to the ring of a phone, the honk o f a horn, the waking of a child. People entertaining themselves on the Internet are in the midst of their lives, able to keep a steady hold on imperatives.”
At present, the number of US players who are playing at online casinos is steadily increasing, but the average deposit amount has shrunk during the current recession. Players are watching their budgets, and playing with restraint, but they are still playing.
