AFL 2022: Carlton urged to dump poker machines that earn club $20 million a year

At a time when most AFL clubs are distancing themselves from poker machine profits, Carlton continue to rake it in with no end in sight. So why can’t they quit the cash-cow?

Heritier Lumumba and Leon Davis in their time at Collingwood. (Picture: News Limited)

Carlton has been slammed for its reliance on poker machine venues which stand to make the club about $200 million in revenue over the next decade.

While a host of clubs have cut ties with poker machines, including Collingwood and Hawthorn, the Blues are licensed to run the money-spinning machines until August, 2032.

Chief advocate for the Alliance For Gambling Reform Tim Costello said the Blues, who have not made finals for nine years despite pocketing enormous gaming profits since 2010, were “morally bankrupt” as a football club.

Carlton confirmed in its 2022 annual report it made just over $20 million in revenue from its hospitality venues, which includes 290 gaming machines.

The club’s stance is at odds with the trend across the competition, with the AFL urging clubs to sell off their machines in a bid to develop other sustainable revenue streams.

Essendon, Richmond and St Kilda also have poker machines.

Costello said the Blues, who have the most machines in the AFL, were “sticking their finger up at the community” and should end their agreement to run pokie venues immediately.

He said the type of machines the Blues own were “the worst and most aggressive pokies in Victoria”.

“They do the most damage, they prey on the most vulnerable and they make the most money,” Costello said.

“They are dangerous machines. They are built for addiction and the social damage, the suicides, kids going hungry, bankruptcy, the crime from pokies is all so well documented.

“So how can Carlton claim to be a community football club? They cannot be a leader in the community.

“They are morally bankrupt on that.”

Carlton president Luke Sayers (left), coach Michael Voss and chief executive Brian Cook.

Carlton reacquired 290 electronic gaming machines in 2018 at a time when AFL chairman Richard Goyder said he “hates” poker machines for the social problems they caused.

“The reason I’m concerned about it is ... most of the profits from poker machines come from problem gamblers, and therein lies the real problem,” Goyder said.

Costello urged Carlton members, fans and corporate partners to stand up and speak out against the club’s poker machine commitment which raked in more cash than Carlton’s membership and gate receipts in 2022.

“Members, players, just about everyone in Victoria knows someone damaged by pokies,” Costello said.

Hawthorn has sold its two poker machine venues, West Waters Hotel in Caroline Springs and The Gardens in Waverley Gardens, for about $40 million, while Melbourne parted ways with The Bentleigh Club.

The Western Bulldogs said they were “incredibly proud” to finalise the sale of Club Leeds and the Peninsula Club after Collingwood parted ways with The Coach and Horses in Ringwood and The Club in Caroline Springs.

Carlton’s 300 gaming machines across four venues helped chip in $20,185,589 to the club’s coffers.

Former Carlton chief executive Cain Liddle said in 2020 the club was edging closer to exiting the lucrative gaming industry, but he has since been replaced by highly-respected CEO Brian Cook.

“The reality of the situation is we haven’t been in a position where we could have made that call,” Liddle said.

“But we are getting closer to being in a position where our non-traditional revenues make up for that money.”

Cook helped Geelong cut ties with The Brook in Point Cook.

At the time, former Geelong president Colin Carter said the club no longer wanted to align with poker machines.

“The club determined that gaming and gambling revenues did not align with our values and core purpose,” Carter said.

Dees distance themselves from pokies as profits surge

Carlton’s on-field surge has helped the club post a bumper financial result, but its poker machine venues remain its biggest source of revenue.

The Blues announced a net operating profit of $3,390,993 for 2022, following a nine per cent surge in membership and the biggest average home crowd (49,784) in the AFL.

Merchandise sales also increased by more than $1 million as Carlton exploded out of the blocks before missing finals with a heartbreaking Round 23 loss to Collingwood.

But the club continues to cash-in on its 300 gaming machines across four venues which helped chip-in $20,185,589 to the club’s coffers.

Clubs including Hawthorn and Melbourne have recently sold-off their gaming machines with the league keen for all clubs to wean off them amid devastating impacts on the community.

Carlton had flagged its intent to follow suit although a timeline remains unclear as the club redevelops IKON Park for its men’s and women’s football programs.

The club’s hospitality revenue represented a $7 million increase on 2021 amid the lockdowns in Victoria.

Melbourne CEO Gary Pert says the Demons are happy to have completed their exit from the gaming industry. Picture: Michael Klein

Melbourne also posted a $3.5 million profit for the year after taking out the 2022 AFLW premiership and 2021 AFL premiership.

The Demons are pleased with the financial results which have seen the club rebound strongly from the Covid-19 pandemic on and off the field.

The operating profit includes a $1.4 million increase on 2021 in part thanks to a $3.5 million increase in match receipts and a $2.2 million jump in membership income.

Melbourne chief executive Gary Pert said the club was happy to have “completed its exit from the gaming industry” after parting ways with the Bentleigh Club in August.

“With record membership, a full suite of commercial partners, cash and investments assets exceeding $36 million, no debt and healthy profits, Melbourne members and supporters can be proud the club is in its strongest-ever off-field position,” Pert said.

Did top Pie ever think De Goey would go?

- Glenn McFarlane

Collingwood will look to introduce an educational academy for its players next year to ensure they are better equipped than ever before in preparing for life after AFL football.

Magpies president Jeff Browne revealed to the Herald Sun that he would be speaking to key universities in an effort to help develop a curriculum for its players in areas such as financial management and property to assist in their development off the field.

It comes as Browne said he never feared Jordan De Goey would ever leave the club, always confident the star midfielder would recommit to Collingwood at the end of the season.

“I was always confident (De Goey) would stay,” Browne said. “There is no better place than Collingwood and we are a great club in supporting people.”

“We are preparing our players for life after footy like no other football club.

“We have brand new facilities here, we have just spent $15 million (on the redevelopment), we have best in league facilities. We have sensible people around who can give advice (to the players), not to annoy them, but to be available for them (if required).”

Jordan De Goey and Craig McRae. Picture: Getty Images

“(Next year) I am going to put more structure into a teaching program (where) we can talk about finance skills (and) property skills.

“What I want to do is to curate that into a form of curriculum that we can teach under a banner of a Collingwood academy. I am going to speak again to the universities.”

De Goey knocked back a lucrative free agency offer from St Kilda in October, but only after an eventful year that included a suspended fine following a controversial mid-season trip to Bali and speculation about rival offers and behaviour clauses in any potential contract.

At times it appeared as if the explosive mid-forward was looking to seek a new home before he finally locked into staying with the Magpies.

But Browne always believed De Goey’s development as a person and as a footballer was best served by him remaining at Collingwood.

“After that late, great win against Carlton (in Round 23), I was in the rooms and he (De Goey) was standing with his mother and father and his brother-in-law,” Browne said.

“I walked up to him and shook his hand and thanked him.

“My only comment to that group that included his mother, father and brother-in-law was “I can’t wait to see you play your 300th game with Collingwood.”

Jordan De Goey was a standout for the Pies during the finals series. Picture: Getty

Pie hopes for Lumumba meeting in LA

Collingwood’s longest-serving indigenous star Leon Davis says the Magpies have taken “a huge step forward” as the club enact the next phase of its anti-racism initiatives that he hopes one day will see Heritier Lumumba return.

As Collingwood president Jeff Browne revealed he would reach out to Lumumba on a trip to Los Angeles early next year and vice-president Jodie Sizer urged the AFL Commission to show greater leadership on the issue of racism, Davis said the cultural change he had seen at the club in recent times had been significant.

Almost two years on from the tabling of the Do Better report, Davis and Collingwood are hoping their recent examples of Truth-Telling and restorative justice can provide an example for the rest of the AFL competition – and the community.

“The Collingwood Football Club has shown real courage to sit in the space that not too many like to sit in,” Davis told the Herald Sun.

“It is a huge step forward for a football club with a history that they have got and a reputation and stain that they have held for a long time.

“For them to make those changes and make that shift, that has really laid part of the foundations for me to return to the club.

“But we still have so much more work to do.”

Davis, Lumumba and Andrew Krakouer cut all ties with the Magpies in April, saying “nothing has changed” following allegations of systemic racism at the club.

But Davis and Krakouer agreed to return in July to help the club’s quest to build a more culturally safe environment and now work with the Magpies on a full-time and part-time basis.

Davis, who played 225 games for the Magpies from 2000 to 2011, is in regular communication with 2010 premiership hero Lumumba, who remains estranged from Collingwood.

Davis (R) and Andrew Krakouer (L) cut ties with Collingwood after the racism allegations hit the club, but returned in July. (Picture: News Limited)

“There is no way we could be in this position now without the work that he (Lumumba) did,” Davis said.

“We’ve got his support to be back at the club and he (Lumumba) has never closed the door on returning one day.

“I don’t think I would ever let him do that. It is something that when he is ready, we would love to see him back. He is a true brother of mine.”

Browne hopes to speak with Lumumba early next year.

“The way of welcoming him back to our club is to show the progress we have made,” Browne said.

“Words are cheap, but we have got some rubber on the road now.

“I have got a trip to Los Angeles in the next few months, and I will certainly be looking him up and taking him through not the things we said we would do, but the things we have done.”

Collingwood has implemented all 18 recommendations of the Do Better report after engaging a 13-person expert advisory group.

It also incorporated an anti-racism message as part of the club’s values, engaged a Truth-Telling framework which Davis and Krakouer led recently, and created a whistleblower policy.

Browne said: “In my heart, I believe this is so critically important. We have learnt so much along the way about how important this is and how awakening it can be to us.

“This has opened up another side to me. I said to someone (recently), if we never won another game at Collingwood, I would actually leave this club a better person.

Mark Anderson, Eddie McGuire, Jodie Sizer and Peter Murphy discuss the release of the club's CGC Better Report in 2021. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

He said the principle of restorative justice had played a key role in the healing.

“The overriding guidance principle is to eliminate racism from our club,” he said. “The way you do that is to listen to stories from the past and to learn from those to make sure they are not repeated.

“Do Better means ‘Do More’ for us now.”

Vice-president Sizer – who is one of 11 First Nations people currently at Collingwood – has played a significant role in the process.

Now she wants the club to help further educate the football world and the wider community.

“If you saw in the (Do Better) report, it says of racism that it is not something that just happens within a club, it reflects the streets and the schools and the workplaces,” Sizer said.

“We, as one of 18 (AFL) clubs, can lead by example, but also need to look at the AFL Commission as a whole, I think there has been a substantial lack of leadership in vision.”

“We are really eager to share the findings of the work we have done. We have put in place steps to ensure it (racism) never happens again, and we want to make sure the Collingwood family is safe for people for generations to come.”

Jodie Sizer hopes Collingwood’s report and subsequent changes will help the club be safe for all for generations. Picture: Supplied

Davis recently took his parents Nancy and Trevor through the club for the first time since his premature retirement after the 2011 season.

“There was some stuff they (his parents) kept from me personally (about what happened at Collingwood during his playing career),” Davis said.

“To open up and have those discussions with them, that is the stuff we deal with as First Nations people all of our lives, on an almost every day basis.

“For them to see the changes that have been made was important.

“I’ve been on this journey all my life, I can’t turn it off, We walk in the footsteps of our ancestors, they laid the foundations and it is only right that we continue to build on that foundation and we are doing our part.”

“There is no finish to this. I won’t see the end result, this is something that will keep going after I am gone.”

Originally published as AFL 2022: Carlton urged to dump poker machines that earn club $20 million a year