Western Australia Poker Machines

1. Any gaming machine of the kind generally known or described as a poker machine, fruit machine (or any similar machine) is prohibited in Western Australia under section 85 of the Gaming and Wagering Commission Act 1987.
2. If you are interested in buying pokies machines in Australia first you need to think whether you want for your personal use or for commercial use. Personal use pokies machines are those machines which are only kept for fun and amusement.

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Under Canberra’s current hands-off poker machine policy, West Australians are paying twice — they lose State revenue by doing the right thing and must help cover the extra costs caused by other States doing the wrong thing. Australians are now the world’s biggest gamblers, with total losses across all gambling classes at $23 billion a year.

CHRIS UHLMANN, PRESENTER: The storm over strict regulations for poker machines is raging on the east coast with many clubs claiming they can't survive without the money gambling delivers, but it is a very different story in Western Australia.

There are no poker machines in WA's pubs, clubs or sporting venues and as Nikki Wilson-Smith found, it has one of the lowest problem gambling rates in the country.

NIKKI WILSON-SMITH, REPORTER: For Perth footy supporters it doesn't get much better than this - Grand Final Day in the local comp is full of big kicks, hard hits and if you're lucky, one day ...

COMMENTATOR: Absolute elation there!

NIKKI WILSON-SMITH: But there is a growing chorus around the country that you can't have the big win without a few of these.

EDDIE MCGUIRE: Without any consultation, to have what looks like being a footy tax imposed is going to absolutely hit football clubs right between the eyes.

TONY ABBOTT: This is one of the tens of thousands of community clubs right around Australia that would be in jeopardy.

ANTHONY BALL: The AFL and their clubs have concerns about mandatory pre commitment and that just is also the position that the NRL and many other groups have had.

RAY WARREN, FOOTBALL COMMENTATOR: It won't work and it will hurt. They're 100 per cent right. I've never seen a more stupid policy in all my life.

NIKKI WILSON-SMITH: But clubs and pubs in WA don't have pokies. They're only allowed in the casino and because they've never had gaming revenue, community sporting clubs have found other ways to make money.

WAYNE BRADSHAW, WAFL: Volunteers work very hard to raise money. It really comes down to the function of mixing your expenditure with your income and we've managed to do it without poker machine revenue.

NIKKI WILSON-SMITH: The WAFL carries out membership drives and it gets corporate sponsors on board to generate its $2.1 million turnover. Two AFL superstars, Ben Cousins and Buddy Franklin, started their careers playing in WAFL clubs which thrive without gaming revenue.

WAYNE BRADSHAW: From our perspective we're not in support of poker machines. We think that the social impact outweighs the benefit that arises out of the revenue that is generated and certainly our clubs are in the position where they don't require the poker machine revenue.

GEOFF GALLOP, FORMER WEST AUSTRALIAN PREMIER: I think a lot of other states look with envy at what we've achieved in Western Australia.

NIKKI WILSON-SMITH: Geoff Gallop is a well known supporter of the WAFL competition. The former WA Premier moved to Sydney five years ago and he says New South Wales clubs are hooked on their 100,000 pokies.

GEOFF GALLOP: Once these clubs get dependent on the revenue that comes from poker machines it's very hard to break the cycle, and these institutions, these clubs and pubs are addicted on poker machines, the thought of their addiction being taken away from them by government edict causes terrible withdrawal symptoms.

NIKKI WILSON-SMITH: New South Wales is home to about 3.6 per cent of the world's poker machines and those pokies generate about $3.5 billion a year for clubs and pubs. The Productivity Commission estimates that 40 per cent of that revenue comes from problem gamblers. In 2008, co owners of the Rabbitohs, Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes a Court announced a plan to make South Sydney Football Club pokie free.

PETER HOLMES A COURT: I doesn't feel right for me, it doesn't feel right for Russel, it doesn't feel right for our football club.

ROY MASTERS, SPORTS JOUNALIST: Well, I think Peter Holmes a Court genuinely believed as one of the co owners of the Rabbitohs that poker machines were heinous and that the club could exist without the resources from poker machines.

NIKKI WILSON-SMITH: Then just as quickly, the plan was scuttled by the team's members, voting to let them stay.

CLUB MEMBER: I like poker machines. I don't have a problem. If I have money, I will play them. If I don't, I don't.

CLUB MEMBER II: I think they're needed for the revenue to keep the club going.

NIKKI WILSON-SMITH: And not only did the club decide to keep pokies, it also signed a sponsorship deal with New South Wales' biggest poker machine operator, Star City Casino. After watching the Rabbitohs try to manage the issue, Geoff Gallop insists the West Australian model is better for the community.

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GEOFF GALLOP: The level of problem gambling is lower here. People can still gamble and the vast majority of that money goes through the lotteries commission into the community. I think we're better than the other states.

NIKKI WILSON-SMITH: Sporting clubs in WA have no trouble attracting members, and according to the Productivity Commission, Western Australia has the second lowest rate of problem gambling in the country. The average amount spent on gambling each year is half that of a typical Victorian.

GEOFF GALLOP: I think when they look at Western Australia, they see, well, perhaps we don't have the big clubs, that's true, but I think we have a healthier lifestyle and of course we don't have those families being devastated by problem gambling.

NIKKI WILSON-SMITH: In the eastern states, Clubs Australia have been the most vocal critics of poker machine reform. Here in Western Australia, their counterpart Clubs WA is also in support of pokies. It wants the State Government to look into introducing them to community clubs, and it says organisations like the Willetton Sporting Club show why.

IAN MARSHALL, WILLETTON SPORTS CLUB: We are utilising the place far, far more. It's just a disappointing thing just the way it happened.

NIKKI WILSON-SMITH: The Willetton Sports Club has just gone into voluntary administration. Ian Marshall was manager at the time and says the cost of maintaining the ageing building became too much, despite having a turnover offer $1.1 million a year.

NIKKI WILSON-SMITH: What effect does it have on the community when a club like this closes?

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IAN MARSHALL: Huge. We have got 5,000 members. I should say we had 5,000 members. That's 5,000 people whose children played here.

NIKKI WILSON-SMITH: Clubs WA argued that gaming revenue could keep clubs like Willetton in the black.

PETER SEAMAN, CLUBS WA: I guess it's about survival and I guess it's about tools to operate. In Western Australia we're denied some really good business tools that around the rest of Australia are able to use and do well with.

NIKKI WILSON-SMITH: But even the club's former manager isn't convinced that pokies are a silver bullet.

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IAN MARSHALL: I think the money that's raised by it has to have a home defined prior to raising it, so if we were $150,000 short and we had the ability to put slot machines in, poker machines in to raise the $100,000, then we've raised it and then we should be told to get rid of them.

PETER SEAMAN: If we're going to have gaming in this state, let the Government control it but also let the community get some benefit out of it.

NIKKI WILSON-SMITH: The West Australian Government isn't looking at changing its pokie laws any time soon and while it continues with its strict bans, the battle over harm reduction continues in other states.

GEOFF GALLOP: Federalism is a good thing and it's good that Western Australia is different because we can see the difference and we can learn from it. I think the second lesson is once you get locked into poker machines, it's a very dangerous course, but there is an alternative.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Nikki Wilson-Smith with that report.

Editor's note: (February 10) the original article incorrectly reported that NSW is home to 20 per cent of the world's poker machines. It also stated that South's League Club was announced to be pokie free, it was only the South Sydney Football Club that was intended to be pokie free.