Poker machine venues owned by AFL clubs have been spending millions of dollars in revenue on themselves – from kitchen renovations to Foxtel subscriptions – while claiming the costs as a community benefit to lower their tax bill.
Eight venues, owned by Carlton, Essendon, Richmond and St Kilda, collectively spent $8.6m on operating costs last year, legally claiming it under the state’s community benefits scheme.
According to financial statements, some spent nothing on “philanthropic or benevolent” causes. In most cases, the amount of money spent on themselves was significantly larger than grants or contributions to external community programs.
The scheme, which provides a tax break to venues that spend 8.33% of gambling profits on community causes, has angered AFL fans, public health experts, anti-gambling advocates and a Victorian mayor who believes an “egregious loophole” was allowing clubs to overstate their community benefit.
Community benefit statements filed by the eight venues show gambling profits were also used to pay for staff wages, superannuation, cleaning costs, training courses, rent, security services, staff uniforms, insurance fees, undisclosed entertainment and utility bills.
The clubs collectively received more than $40m from poker machines in the last financial year. They are also members of the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation’s Love the Game initiative, which aims to raise awareness of gambling harm among youth.
Essendon’s two poker machine venues have claimed more than $1m in pay television subscriptions for Fox Footy and Sky Racing as a community benefit since 2009, according to the lobby group No Pokies at Essendon.
Carlton’s four poker machine venues spent $5.8m on operating costs last year. According to community benefits statements, the money was spent on “rent and salaries”. Last year, Carlton’s four venues pocketed $19.1m from 290 machines – an average of $65,954 per machine.
The St Kilda Football Social Club in Moorabin spent $586,311 on operating costs. Another $397,655 was spent on “any sporting or recreational purpose, excluding any club that holds a venue operator’s licence”.
Just over $17,000 was spent on “philanthropic or benevolent purposes”.
The Wantirna Club, which is owned by Richmond, spent $680,561 on operating costs and did not list any philanthropic or benevolent contributions. It provided $67,000 worth of subsidies on goods and services.
Essendon, Carlton, St Kilda and Richmond were contacted for comment.
The president of the No Pokies at Essendon group, Mike Read, said the community benefit scheme was “in urgent need of an overhaul”. He noted the payments were legal, but questioned whether they were appropriate.
“That venues can write off operating costs as a community benefit, to secure tax breaks, is a sign of a broken system,” Read said. “It acts as a double-hit on taxpayers, who are already footing the bill for the economic costs incurred across a wide range of areas due to the harm of problem gambling.”
“It is not just the claiming of operating costs that is an issue, with venues also writing off other in-venue items such as meal discounts, room hire and entertainment costs which act to induce people into venues and funnel them towards addiction.”
Earlier this year, an Essendon spokesperson said the club was still reliant on gambling as it transitioned out of the pandemic era.
“The financial stability and independence of the club is paramount, and we won’t compromise that by making a rushed short-term decision,” the spokesperson said.
Charles Livingstone, an associate professor of public health at Monash University, said the scheme allowed clubs to “overstate” their community benefit.
“One of the first things politicians raise when you talk about this issue is the claim that they do so much good work in the community,” Livingstone said.
“The correct answer is that’s simply not true. They don’t do a lot of good work in the community.”
