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October 9th, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
Playing it down … chief executive of Clubs Australia, Anthony Ball.
LICENSED clubs have offered public support for a trial of compulsory betting controls for poker machines after fresh evidence emerged suggesting the clubs have exaggerated likely financial losses caused by the proposed measures.
After months of trenchant opposition to the prospect of mandatory measures, Clubs Australia yesterday announced it had written to the federal government offering to support a trial of compulsory pre-set betting limits on pokies.
The Clubs Australia move follows the disclosure of an industry estimate that the drop in gaming revenues from the measures would be 10-20 per cent, half the figures publicly cited by Clubs Australia.
The clubs’ offer on a trial met with a cool response from the government, which has been working with the states in a bid to mount a trial in the face of industry opposition.
The ACT government and local clubs are understood to be considering a trial. A proposal backed by the Tasmanian government earlier this year was rejected by the state’s poker machine monopoly.
The Minister for Family and Community Services, Jenny Macklin, said yesterday the government was interested in a trial before the mandatory pre-commitment system was implemented in 2014, as required under the agreement with the Tasmanian independent MP Andrew Wilkie.
”But a trial requires the co-operation of all venues in a region or state, as well as the state or territory government,” Ms Macklin said.
The executive director of Clubs Australia, Anthony Ball, sought yesterday to play down the significance of the estimates given by the Club Training Australia organisation at a briefing to an industry conference in July.
Mr Ball said he was not aware of any study or research to back the estimate of a 10-20 per cent drop whereas the 40 per cent figure cited by Clubs Australia was based on a study by Deutsche Bank.
Mr Ball said the offer of support for a trial of mandatory pre-commitment in one state or territory had not been prompted by the release of the document.
But the chairman of the Interchurch Gambling Taskforce, Tim Costello, dismissed the offer by Clubs Australia to support the mandatory trial as ”damage control” after the release of damaging figures.
”I think this is simply a last gasp offer to string it out because their argument is failing,” Mr Costello said.
The independent senator Nick Xenophon said the Club Training estimate showed the poker machine industry was in ”a deliberately dishonest campaign of misinformation about poker machine reforms”.
Senator Xenophon said the documents also describe ploys the clubs could take to get around proposed restrictions on the use of ATMs at pokie venues. Alternatives suggested include building ATM alcoves outside venues.
Such measures were ”sick and cynical”, he said.
Mr Ball said the government should make it clear to Mr Wilkie that support for mandatory pre-commitment betting was conditional on the technology being proved in a trial.
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