Stop profits from addiction! There's a 'fresh' idea
Here's the message we *wish* Woolies would send after yesterday's Annual General Meeting in Sydney...
Woolworths is the largest operator of pokies in Australia – with more poker machines than the top five Las Vegas casinos combined.
Woolies trades daily on its family values, while its poker machines devastate Australian families. That's why we took the fight to their front door, at yesterday's AGM.
Woolworths' Company Secretary, Richard Dammery, accepted our 50K-strong petition calling on Woolies to take responsibility for the deceptive design of Woolworths' poker machines. And he did so in front of a small army of television and newspaper journalists.
More than 51,400 Australians have now signed the petition to get the con out of Australian poker machines. Have you?
Woolies trades daily on its family values, while its poker machines devastate Australian families. That's why we took the fight to their front door, at yesterday's AGM.
Woolworths' Company Secretary, Richard Dammery, accepted our 50K-strong petition calling on Woolies to take responsibility for the deceptive design of Woolworths' poker machines. And he did so in front of a small army of television and newspaper journalists.
More than 51,400 Australians have now signed the petition to get the con out of Australian poker machines. Have you?
As the majority shareholder in the Australian Leisure and Hospitality (ALH) Group, Woolies operate 328 licensed venues across Australia. Woolworths operates over 12,000 poker machines in these Woolies-owned hotels. This makes Woolworths Australia's largest owner of poker machines.
Find it hard to believe? Here's a screenshot from the FAQ section of the Woolworths Limited website:
In 2012, GetUp members chipped in to fund a report that estimated the total net gambling revenue generated by Woolies poker machines in 2010-11 at $1.29 billion.
Woolies have not been forthcoming with reporting their profits from poker machines:
Find it hard to believe? Here's a screenshot from the FAQ section of the Woolworths Limited website:
In 2012, GetUp members chipped in to fund a report that estimated the total net gambling revenue generated by Woolies poker machines in 2010-11 at $1.29 billion.
Woolies have not been forthcoming with reporting their profits from poker machines:
Industry whistleblowers broke the silence on poker machines this year, in explosive documentary Ka-Ching! Pokie Nation. Ka-Ching! went inside the machines to show how addictive technologies are used to keep people playing well beyond their means.
For too long the pokies industry has deflected attention away from its machines, targeting the "irresponsible gamblers" who play them.
Here are some of the tricks that were exposed by industry insiders in Ka-Ching!:
For too long the pokies industry has deflected attention away from its machines, targeting the "irresponsible gamblers" who play them.
Here are some of the tricks that were exposed by industry insiders in Ka-Ching!:
- Poker machines are custom built for "process addiction". The machines trigger positive chemical responses in the brain with features such as sound, light and animation. Neuroscientists compared these responses to those triggered by cocaine.
- Poker machines manipulate the user through techniques like "losses disguised as wins". This is when a user is fed some winning lines, which are celebrated as a win with bright lights and loud noises, when they've actually experienced a net loss.
- Another misleading and deceptive technique is the use of "near misses", where the reel of the machine is laid out to mislead the user into thinking they've only just missed out on a win. These appear on some machines 13 times more often than they would if the reels were left to chance.
GetUp members are working with Tim Costello and the Alliance for Gambling Reform on 'The Pokies Play You' campaign.
The Alliance is a collaboration of organisations with a shared concern about the deeply harmful and unfair impacts of gambling. It includes more than 40 local governments, churches and community groups. GetUp is joining forces with the Alliance for Gambling Reform on 'The Pokies Play You' campaign.
Together, we intend to hold to account the people who make, control and regulate these machines – from Woolworths, the largest poker machine owner in the country, to government ministers, many of whom sit cosily in the pockets of the gaming industry.
Follow this link to learn more about 'The Pokies Play You' campaign and the Alliance for Gambling Reform: http://www.pokiesplayyou.org.au/
The Alliance is a collaboration of organisations with a shared concern about the deeply harmful and unfair impacts of gambling. It includes more than 40 local governments, churches and community groups. GetUp is joining forces with the Alliance for Gambling Reform on 'The Pokies Play You' campaign.
Together, we intend to hold to account the people who make, control and regulate these machines – from Woolworths, the largest poker machine owner in the country, to government ministers, many of whom sit cosily in the pockets of the gaming industry.
Follow this link to learn more about 'The Pokies Play You' campaign and the Alliance for Gambling Reform: http://www.pokiesplayyou.org.au/
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Australians deserve con-free poker machines, that aren't designed to addict or rigged to lose over time. Get the pokies con out of our communities and our politics.
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