Letter to AEU

For better or worse, Labor has won by a landslide in Victoria. I feel that we need to work with the party, not against it, to achieve any reform. We need to find friendly contacts within the party and the wider Labor movement who will push our agenda. I met a lot of their activists on the campaign trail. I'm heartened to hear that many of them dislike pokies as much as I do, but now it's time for them to start putting those words into action! I'm getting the ball rolling by writing to my union, the AEU (Australian Education Union.) Here's my letter:

"------ Street
Preston
Vic
3072

3rd December 2018

Dear Ms Pearce & AEU Victoria,

I’m a casual relief teacher and a member of the AEU. I mainly work in the public sector. I received your petition asking me to vote Labor in the recent election; to put education first and to put the Liberals last. I happily acceded to the latter request. However, despite Labor’s strong commitment to public education, I have become a lapsed supporter of the party. I cannot vote for a government that continues to allow the proliferation of poker machines in our state.

Over the last financial year, Victoria lost $3.2 billion to pokies. Our residents lose the equivalent of $7,149,397 every single day. This figure will undoubtedly be higher next year.

Victoria’s least affluent suburbs lose six times more to poker machines than the most affluent postcodes. For instance,Brimbank residents recently lost over $12 million dollars in a single month, compared to $1.7 million in Stonnington. The gap between our most and least privileged students grows wider, and gambling losses are a major contributor.

The gaming operators are clearly exploiting communities that are already highly stressed, and that can least afford the additional problems poker machines create. There can be no doubt that our most disadvantaged students are further harmed by the hotels and clubs which abound in their districts. The social and financial harm suffered by their parents, carers and relatives from poker machines is compromising our children’s education and thus their future . This harm includes family violence, extreme financial hardship, poor mental health and increased risk of suicide.

I write as a parent, teacher and someone who has suffered harm from these evil machines. The Andrews government has refused to implement any reforms which restrict this disastrously ruinous business. Gambling reform groups have asked for maximum one dollar bets, restricted opening hours and a decrease in the number of machines. Labor have ignored these harm reduction measures. Instead, they have increased the length of gaming licenses to run all the way to 2042. They have allowed hotels to add more poker machines.

During the recent election campaign I spoke to many Labor supporters and activists who told me that they were on my side; that they abhor poker machines as much as I do. However, when will these supportive words produce action? Please, if you have any sway with the Labor party, push for poker machine reform. Stop robbing our most needy students.

Yours in solidarity,

Ian Stuart McDonald
Member number -------

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VCAT submission 16th October 2018 re Darebin RSL

This is my submission to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) in opposition to Darebin RSL's  application to add fifteen extra poker machines and extend their opening hours:

If I walk five minutes from my front door to the south, I find the Junction Hotel, with a pokies room open until 4am. If I walk 5 minutes to the North, I find the Cramers Hotel, open till 4am. To the east we have the Olympic Hotel with similar opening hours. Why does the CIty of Darebin need another pokies venue with extended opening hours? 

I speak as someone who has suffered harm from poker machines; much of this harm happened at the Darebin RSL. My losses have amounted to hundreds of dollars, if not thousands. This venue is a three minute walk from my house. I am someone who tends to gamble in the early hours of the morning, as do many others, and I don’t want the temptation of another late opening venue on my doorstep.

 I have self excluded from the RSL via the Australian Hotels Association. This has proved pointless, as my self-exclusion has never been challenged by venue staff. When my wife and I brought this up with venue management, they answered that banning me is impossible as they are too busy & have too many excluded gamblers on their books.  My understanding is that their only resource is a wall bedecked with dozens of small photographs of excluded patrons, tucked away in an area rarely checked by venue staff. Is this a venue that practices responsible gambling?

 The Darebin RSL is a private club, requiring all guest members to sign in before entering, but in my experience the front desk is never attended. Anyone can wander in off the street straight to the gaming area without meeting a staff member. These lax procedures directly caused me harm from gambling.

I have self-excluded from all the gaming venues in Preston, and have been refused entry by door staff at Cramers Hotel, which proves exclusion can be effective with adequate care and attention.  

The Darebin RSL positions itself as family & community friendly by offering cheap meals and entertainment, but this is standard practice for every pokies hotel in the region. It’s simply an enticement to get more punters through the door. Buying a $10 meal is hardly a saving if the patron then loses $300 on the pokies. And lose they do - last year Darebin residents lost a total of $4.4 million on these pernicious machines at the Darebin RSL. That’s $30 per head of population. When you consider that the vast majority residents aren’t draining their wallets here, one must assume that a few are burdening vast losses.

What community benefits result from the increased opening hours? Long after the kitchen closes, the entertainment ceases and even the TAB shuts, the pokies will continue flashing away. The RSL forecasts additional revenues of $3.3 million by extending their hours to 2 am.

Where does this money actually go? The organization positions itself as not for profit. Why has it only committed to a paltry $15,000 to the local community? 

I met with  a local school principal yesterday morning, Mr Mark Tierney of Sacred Heart Primary School in Bell St, Preston. He told me that the RSL asked for his support for this application, based on their contributions to the school. However, when he checked there was no record of any support, financial or otherwise. Four local school principals have chosen to object to the application rather than support it.

The Darebin RSL claims that it cannot be commercially viable without poker machines. However, the Coburg branch operates 3.5km away without a gaming license. In WA there are 129 RSL sub branches, none of which have machines. Why does the RSL in Victoria have such an addiction to these machines? To quote from their website “The RSL was formed in June 1916 by troops returning from WWI with the purpose of preserving the spirit of mateship formed amidst the carnage and horror of battle, to honour the memory of the fallen and to help each other whenever required.” There’s nothing matey or honourable about being transfixed by these machines for hours on end and trudging out with an empty bank account. 

If a single RSL branch gets $4.4 million from gambling losses, one has to question the financial model and the ethics of the organization. Poker machines are tools for siphoning money, often from those who can least afford it.

My trip to the AGM

My name is Stuart McDonald. I’m a poker machine addict, and a member of the Alliance for Gambling reform. Inspired by my wonder colleague Dr Susan Rennie, who made a powerful speech at the Woolworths AGM  regarding their ownership of pokies, I decided to nominate myself as a director of the Western Bulldogs Football Club. The Bulldogs operate poker machines, as do all the other Victorian AFL clubs apart from North Melbourne. I love my footy club, but I hate the pokies.

Nominating as a board member is really simple, although the club hide the information deep in their website. You just hunt around, download the appropriate form , print it out and get two fellow members to back your application. I struck a slight problem in that almost all of my friends are hippies, greenies and party animals who have no interest in football. I go to the games on my own. Luckily, the Dogs were hosting an open training session just before Christmas. I went up into the stands at the Whitten Oval and approached a couple of ladies and said ‘Excuse me, but do you like poker machines?’ No, they did not like poker machines and they happily countersigned my form. Thanks Gladys and Glynnis.

Since I was at the club’s home I dropped the forms off at the front desk, but to make sure they got them I posted and emailed them through too.

A couple of days later I received a call from the rather agitated CEO, Ameet Bains, in which he strongly discouraged me from running. His main argument was that board elections were usually uncontested, and that for me to run would cost the club $25,000. I wavered, but after I called Susan Rennie and a brief pep talk, I hardened up.I ran. It later transpired that the $25,000 had been spent on employing two scrutineers from Ernst & Young, but more of that later.

The three board nominees were myself; Chris Nolan, an advertising executive; and Matthew Croft, an ex-Bulldogs player.

I arrived at the AGM at the appointed hour. My speech was first up. The first part consisted of me reading  this document , as it had originally formed my nomination pitch to members, but the Bulldogs hierarchy only allowed me to put the first two paragraphs on their website. Then I launched into a very angry speech. I told the club their ownership of poker machines was shameful and hypocritical. I detailed how gambling had affected my life so adversely. I asked for a concrete, five year plan to get out of the poker machine industry.

When I got down from the dais, there was a smattering of applause and a look of shock from some attendees, especially a group of well dressed elderly people in the front row, mouths agape. I tried to connect with some of the attendees, but many averted their gaze, and it was impossible to talk while all the other speeches were on. There were a lot of speeches. I had been told that the AGM was only going to last for an hour, and it lasted well over two.

What surprised me was that a large part of rest the AGM was devoted to little old me. I must have really struck a nerve.

The next speaker, board nominee Chris Nolan, spent the first part of his speech belittling me as a ‘single issue candidate’ who didn’t have the experience to run as a board member. He then made a very long and very boring footy club speech about how wonderful everything was at the club. He defended the club’s stance on poker machines, and told us they ‘aspired’ to get rid of them but only at a time of their choosing.

I waited for the next nominee, Matthew Croft, to make his speech but he stayed rooted to his chair. I have no idea why he didn’t speak. Did he have laryngitis? I found this strange, and I wonder if anyone else at the AGM did so too.

We then went to the vote. This process was rather quaint. Everyone was given a different coloured card with the names of the three nominees. They were asked to raise the cards with their chosen nominees above their heads, as club officials roamed around to collect them. There were lots of Matthew Croft and Chris Nolan cards, but few, if any ,for Stuart McDonald. I wonder if the ballot had been private rather than so public, would I have received any more votes? There was an unsettling element of groupthink.

Peter Gordon then talked for a very long time. I love Peter, he saved our club from extinction, but by golly he could speak underwater. He devoted several minutes of his speech to my campaign, particularly a comment I had made on bigfooty.com where I’d accused the club of ‘treating members like mushrooms - feeding them shit and keeping them in the dark' over the failed Edgewater development. I must have really pissed him off because he defended himself strongly against my attack.

The tone changed when Mr Gordon said that I reminded him of himself, and that he was ‘ambivalent’ about my stance. He got nostalgic and went back to 1988, when he became determined that our club should stay at the ancestral Whitten Oval when the then VFL wanted to move our club to Princes Park in Carlton. He reminded the listeners that he was a single-issue campaigner himself, and even though he didn’t know how to change things he formed a grassroots campaign. I get the impression that even though I’m a pain on the arse, he respects me.

After a while, it was announced that Chris Nolan and Matthew Croft were duly elected to the board. I’ll have to take the club’s word on that, as the voting tallies weren’t announced, nor was there any mention of the proxy vote. I found it a strange and amateurish method of running an election. What did the two scrutineers from Ernst & Young do to earn their $25,000? Easy money.

I had my two children, aged seven months and two years with me, who behaved very patiently for what must have been a terribly boring outing for them. I had been told that the AGM would last an hour, but two hours later, after the umpteenth speech, the kids were desperate to go home. As was I. So I left without mingling and chatting to the board and members, unfortunately.

The club's report of the AGM is here; I’ve been airbrushed out of history. Perhaps a man dressed in red white and blue will bundle me into a car one day as I’m walking down the street and ferry me to a remote Bulldogs camp for ‘reeducation’

Stuart

Bulldogs board nominee

My name is Stuart McDonald. I'm originally from Ireland. When I migrated to Melbourne in 1999 I soon realised I needed to choose an Aussie Rules team. I lived first in St Albans and then Sunshine, becoming an adopted Son of the West. I fell in love with the sport and with the Doggies. I became a member and travelled to Docklands to cheer on the boys every week they played in Melbourne. I had a spell back in Ireland but returned to Australia in time for Bev's reign and our glorious finals run. I'm a social club member and I was lucky enough to be at the MCG to watch our Grand Final victory. Through bigfooty.comI've sponsored a number of players over the years.

I'm a primary school teacher. I have three children aged sixteen, two and six months. The two year old is mad about the Doggies and accompanies me to games. I love the footy - but I hate pokies.

The Western Bulldogs operate 63 poker machines across two venues, Club Leeds in Footscray and Club Dromana. Community members lost nearly $6 million on Bulldogs pokies in 2016/17. The Club operates these pokies, despite research which tells us that 40% of this money comes from people with gambling addiction. About 60% comes from people experiencing harm with their gambling.

I'm a pokies addict. So are many others in our community. That's not surprising. Poker machines are deliberately designed to ensnare and addict users. Their sole purpose is to extract money from the user as quickly as possible.

I've lost thousands of dollars to these misleading and addictive machines over the years. Some of this money was lost at venues operated by our club. I consider myself fortunate. Other people have lost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The pokie machines operated by the Western Bulldogs are responsible for immense harm within our community. They contribute to family violence, divorce, alcoholism, criminal behaviour and suicide.

New AFL chairman Richard Goyder has declared he hates the pokies and has established “Project Fruit” inside the commission which is aiming to reduce AFL club dependency on pokies revenue. The Bulldogs should be a leading advocate for reform through this process and ultimately join North Melbourne in being proudly pokies free.

This club stands for community. The sons and daughters of the west do not want our club operating these machines. Our club captain Easton Wood has publicly stated he "couldn't stomach" gambling. We have record membership and many revenue streams.Help me kick the pokies out of footy. We don't need them. We don't want them.

Regards and Go Dogs!

Stuart McDonald