Tasmanian pokies spending is on the slide.
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Total spending on gaming machines in pubs, clubs, casinos and the Spirit of Tasmania ferries was down by 4.5 per cent in the nine months to the end of February, compared to the same period a year earlier.
Spending dropped from $123.72 million to $118.17 million, figures from state Treasury’s Liquor and Gaming Branch showed.
Pokies had a prominent role in the recent state election campaign, with Labor joining the Greens in wanting them banned from pubs and clubs.
Tasmanian Hospitality Association chief executive Steve Old suspected that might have been a factor in the financial year to date decline, although spending on pokies had been trending down for some years.
Mr Old believed the rise of online gambling options was a factor in the decreasing pokies spend.
“The (pokies) offering is there,” he said.
“In the end, it’s up to the individual whether they want to play.”
Recent Australian Bureau of Statistics figures on Tasmanian retail showed spending on essential items was growing strongly, while spending on non-essential items had decreased slightly.
Mr Old said he wanted people to spend on the essentials first, and industries should try for the discretionary dollar.
”What I don’t want to see is people spending money they don’t have,” Mr Old said.
He said many restaurants had reported they were doing well.
”It’s great to see people going out more and more to our eating establishments,” Mr Old said.
“If people are spending in other areas (than pokies), that’s the market,” he said.
Much of the hospitality sector campaigned strongly against the anti-pokies election policies.
After the election, which the Liberals won, Tasmanian Greens Leader Cassy O’Connor said the Greens had “been on the receiving end of the best funded fear campaign in Tasmania's history” and lost votes to Labor “because they finally took action on pokies”.
Greens policy includes:
- Immediately establishing $1 bet limits on existing pokie machines;
- legislating for Tasmania to work towards being pokie-free; and
- giving councils control over the location and number of pokie venues.