St Kilda FC working to move away from reliance on pokies at its Linton St headquarters
The debt-ridden St Kilda Football Club has revealed it will scale back reliance on pokies revenue when it’s ‘financially viable’.
Inner South
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Struggling St Kilda Football Club has revealed it is working to scale back its reliance on pokies.
A club spokesman told the Leader that, due to the significant investment in its new headquarters at Linton St, Moorabbin, it was not financially viable for the club to stop deriving revenue from gaming machines in the short or medium-term but said it was a long-term goal.
ST KILDA SETTLES INTO NEW MOORABBIN HOME
In 2018, a year which saw St Kilda’s debt balloon from $10 million to $12 million amid a disastrous season on the field, the club reaped about $2 million from the 86 pokies at Linton St.
“The club is working to identify alternative revenue streams which will allow the club to reduce its reliance on gaming, when financially viable,” he said.
“The club has begun initial discussions with the AFL about an industry-wide approach to reduce the gaming revenue in the industry.”
The Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation statistics show Kingston is ranked ninth among the state’s 79 council areas for pokies losses, with residents losing $86 million a year.
Alliance for Gambling Reform spokesman Tim Costello said it was “really disappointing” that St Kilda continued to run what he called its “poorly performing, sub-scale pokies club”.
“So many other AFL clubs are voluntarily divesting or exiting the toxic pokies industry,” Mr Costello said.
“Given the amount of funding the State Government has provided for the redevelopment of Moorabbin, it is disappointing that closure of the pokies facility was not made a condition of the agreement.”
“The AFL should be providing incentives for clubs which are struggling financially to exit the pokies business and St Kilda is probably the best example of a club that should be supported out of the pokies if it won’t get out voluntarily.”
Collingwood, Melbourne, Geelong and the Western Bulldogs have all announced their intention to move away from pokies revenue, while North Melbourne did so more than a decade ago.
The Saints returned to Moorabbin in 2018 with about $12 million investment from State Government and $5 million from Kingston Council in the revamp of the grounds and buildings.
The club’s move to Seaford was prompted by a breakdown in 2008 in its relations with Kingston Council over the club’s continued commitment to pokies.
The council said it was preparing a public campaign to raise awareness of the social cost of pokies in the community.
“We are happy to work with any venue operator with gaming licenses, to discuss working together to reduce the harm of gaming in our community,” mayor Georgina Oxley said.
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