Entain walks out of gambling’s peak body; David Collard’s debts laid bare
Forget about the revolving door of staff. Now it looks like the very future of Responsible Wagering Australia, the industry peak body representing the bookies, may be in doubt after a prominent member signalled their intention to walk out on the group.
Dean Shannon’s London-listed outfit Entain is planning to splinter from the RWA, as is Pointsbet, apparently, with the slimy issue of gambling advertising said to be driving a wedge between these two players and the biggest of the cheeses in the room, Sportsbet.
The problem with RWA is that it stopped being truly representative about a year ago. That’s after Sportsbet seized control of the group, and there’s been great displeasure ever since that it has been exerting too much control over some of the decision-making.
Too much for Entain, at least. It’s been urging Sportsbet to rein in the gambling ads during football matches, in line with community sentiment. Sportsbet has been seemingly unwilling to do so, even though everyone from the PM down thinks the issue is toxic.
Just months ago Anthony Albanese described gambling ads during live sport as “annoying” and even went further, saying: “The idea you’re watching a footy game and … on comes an ad for gambling, I find pretty reprehensible.”
Peter Dutton isn’t far behind on that sentiment either. He delivered a budget-reply speech last year floating a ban on gambling ads during broadcasts, plus for an hour each side of the games. Not that Sportsbet CEO Barni Evans seems to care. Is he even listening?
The issue couldn’t be more salient right now, either. A parliamentary inquiry chaired by former Labor MP Peta Murphy made 30 recommendations that are being considered by Albanese and his cabinet – and that includes an ad ban, plus the appointment of a federal minister for gambling harm reduction.
But it would be a mistake to assume that Entain is simply storming off in a huff. Officials on all sides framed their impending departure as amicable, the point of it all to give Entain some free air to represent itself. Fair enough, given most of their dosh is in racing, not the beloved sportsballs.
And so what then for the RWA, led by CEO Kai Cantwell and chairman Nick Minchin? Well, you can’t have an industry guild that represents the views of only one member, and without Entain and potentially Pointsbet, there really isn’t much of a body left.
Collard’s debts
Gosh, we knew that the Geelong grifter David Collard already owed money all over town. But just looking at the actual numbers themselves, laid bare in a liquidator’s report released on Friday, makes for some desperately pitiful reading.
For a start, there are 68 employees with unpaid entitlements worth $4.1m. In the queue with them is the Australian Taxation Office reaching for $15.7m, the bulk of it based on a fine that accuses Collard of an “intentional disregard of taxation law”.
And there’s confirmation, too, of what Collard’s company, Scale Facilitation, allegedly did to provoke the ATO’s attention and a police raid on his Geelong headquarters, namely that he submitted R&D credit deductions in the order of $12m for investments that supposedly were never made.
Liquidator Scott Anderson said the ATO had found that Collard “failed to demonstrate that the company incurred the expenditure for which they claimed the R&D deductions, and failed to demonstrate that it incurred the expenditure on their registered R&D activities”.
It’s kind of sad that the list of debtors includes a few hapless PR staff who shilled for the company and pushed back against journalists enquiring about the substantial sums owed for months of unpaid work.
Collard’s former head of external affairs was one of them – he’s trying to get back $134,000; there’s a media adviser who spent months protecting Collard from Margin Call’s inquiries. Looks like she wasn’t being paid either and is seeking $43,492.
All accrued, by the way, while Collard larked about in a Rolls-Royce and stayed in a Manhattan eyrie owned by billionaire Chinese art collector Liu Yiqian; and he, too, eventually sued Collard and kicked him to the curb for squatting in the Park Ave pad.
And what about all the money Scale Facilitation promised to Deakin University for an Applied Artificial Intelligence Institute? Collard’s silly sidekick James Fatone happily posed in November 2022 with an oversized cheque made out to the university for $10m, with not a dime of those funds ever received.
Deakin is seeking $3.4m, and so is the Give Where You Live Foundation, a charity partner that’s owed $15,000. Hamilton Group Spaces, the mob that fitted out Scale Facilitation’s office in Geelong, is owed $1m, and let’s not forget the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, which is owed $281,600.
Isn’t that Ed Husic’s department? The same Ed Husic who toured a greenfield site in Avalon with Collard, said greenfield site having been talked up absolutely deluxe as the proposed location of Australia’s first-ever gigafactory? And what did all that bluff amount to? Absolutely nothing. As Lt. Col. Frank Slade would tell the Baird School assembly: What a sham!
The most pitiful parts of Anderson’s report are the internal management accounts, suspected to be littered with falsehoods, and which say Collard’s business, Sanitex Global, had a net profit position of more than $1bn in FY23.
In all likelihood, this is a flagrant lie, based on Anderson’s assessments and interviews with employees.
“Based on the comment received from the directors, the company’s internal records are not a true and correct reflection of the financial position of the company,” he wrote. “As a result of the ATO audit, it appears there are significant amendments necessary to the financial statements.”
And what about the sudden movement of $1m in funds from the company bank accounts, transferred in the months leading up to Anderson’s appointment? “Further investigations are warranted to ascertain the purpose of these transactions, including whether any preferential or voidable transaction claim may exist.”