Data from the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission reveals Carlton as the top beneficiary of poker machine in the AFL, garnering $19.1m from its 290 machines at four different venues, averaging a return of $65,954 per machine.

Meanwhile, Richmond accrued $4.6m from 97 machines located at the Wantirna Club in Melbourne’s eastern side, resulting in an average of $47,573 per machine. St Kilda fetched $1.8m from its 83 machines at its Moorabbin venue.

Essendon stood out, collecting $14.7m from its 190 machines across two venues. Advocacy group, No Pokies at Essendon, pointed out this as the highest total since 2007.

No Pokies at Essendon President Mike Read said the club a lot of work to both on-field and off-field, and was extremely disappointed with their continued profiting off poker machines.

ALSO READ: BEST POKIES VENUES IN MELBOURNE

“In recent years we have seen AFL clubs rush to get out of the pokies business, recognising the immense social harm they cause,” Read said.

“Essendon, instead, points to the revenue that gaming machines provide the football club, as though yet another disappointing season on-field justifies the continued damage that the predatory machines inflict.”

The No Pokies at Essendon initiative is endorsed by Zoe Daniel, an independent MP and dedicated Bombers fan. Daniel voiced her concerns, saying football clubs shouldn’t be attempting to profit off fans via electronic gaming machines. s

An Essendon representative, however, defended the club’s reliance on pokies, noting, “In the aftermath of Covid, we still need the revenue from our gaming machines. Any major decisions regarding our future venues will undergo thorough scrutiny by the board.”

Interestingly, all four clubs — Richmond, St Kilda, Essendon, and Carlton — are affiliated with the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation’s Love the Game program, an initiative focusing on educating the youth about gambling risks.

Carol Bennet, CEO of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, challenged their association with the program given their substantial gambling earnings.

“If you’re profiting significantly from your poker machines, you can definitely be selective with your sponsors,” Bennet said.

Bennet suggested that if these clubs truly cared about their performance and community, they’d emulate teams like Collingwood, Melbourne, Geelong, and the Western Bulldogs who’ve abandoned pokies and secured seven premierships combined since doing so.

North Melbourne was notably the first Victorian AFL club to abandon pokies back in 2008. In 2022, Hawthorn followed suit, selling its two poker machine venues. Collingwood also exited the industry in 2018, with its former president, Eddie McGuire, terming it “a sound business move.”

Australia has some of the most stringent gambling laws in the world, with it one of the few countries yet to legalise online casinos, which has caused many millions of dollars to be sent to offshore gambling sites.

This means authorities have little idea about the money spent playing online pokies, with several notable AFL players in the past admitting they gambling heavily online during their careers.

Australia does have a legal sports betting industry, with the AFL one of the most popular wagering events at online bookmakers.

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This comes at a time when fans, players, and even clubs, not to mention politicians and health experts, have been calling for the reduced dependency of the AFL on gambling companies, and criticized the omnipresence of advertisement in broadcasts and on team shirts and properties.

The AFL Gets More Money from Gambling Companies

The contributions Gillon McLachlan, the head of AFL was referring to, are called “product fees.” The man was laconic about how much money was brought in for the organization this way but noted that it was a part of the turnover.

“We have product fee arrangements with all the wagering operators where we get a percentage of their operations on the AFL,” the boss confirmed during a parliamentary hearing, which is currently looking to better regulate online gambling.

McLachlan though used his appearance before lawmakers to make certain adjustments to his previous comments, and notably an interview he gave for 3AW. In that interview, he claimed that there was potentially too much advertising going around that involves sports gambling, but appearing on Tuesday, he told lawmakers that this was not truly the case.

In the meantime, fans have been very much on the side of consumers. The AFL Fans Association recently ran a massive survey encompassing 3,000 fans and posted the results which proved that around 75% of the people petitioned would have sports gambling advertisements banned from radio and television, to begin with.

McLachlan said that he was aware of these attitudes but cautioned that over-regulation was still not the right way forward. Meanwhile, gambling companies have changed their tune. Entain, one of the biggest companies in the Australian regulated gambling market, said that it acknowledged the demand for less obtrusive and pervasive regulation, adding that it now wanted to be a part of the solution and not act against fans’ desires.

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A joint appearance of Australian Football League (AFL) and National Rugby League (NRL) executives before an online gambling inquiry that is seen as key to further regulation tightening led to speculation that both sporting bodies are changing their stance against changes.

AFL’s chief executive officer, Gill McLachlan and his NRL counterpart, Andrew Abdo, will appear together during a public hearing on Tuesday in Canberra as part of the online gambling inquiry initiated by the government to determine whether further tightening of the gambling regulation is needed, reported Australian Financial Review.

Their appearance side-by-side is stirring rumors within the gambling industry that the country’s top sports administrators will present a united front on the proposed tightening of the betting advertising rules despite the submissions made by their respective sporting codes claiming that the current regime is appropriate and needs no further regulation.

“Since the sport codes made their written submission, we have received substantial evidence contradicting their claim that the current rules around [the] promotion of online sports betting are appropriate,” commented the chair of the inquiry, Labor MP Peta Murphy.

Pleased to see that both executives agreed to appear together, Murphy noted that “this will be their opportunity to tell the committee and the public whether they have considered that evidence and the broader community sentiment.”

Change of Position Is Likely

McLachlan implied that there may be a change in AFL’s recommendation that no further changes be made during a Melbourne radio interview in which he admitted that the amount of gambling advertising was “probably too much” and “in your face.”

He also explained that the league’s set of restrictions “are being reviewed at the moment, hinting that “probably they will be wound tighter,” but underlining that the AFL does not “believe in prohibition because all it does is drive it underground or offshore and that has its own set of problems.”

A recently released survey by the Australian Gambling Research Centre showed that more than half of Australians supported an outright ban on gambling advertising. Data also revealed that 41% of the survey respondents had been exposed to gambling advertising four or more times per week.

The Australian Institute of Family Studies also posted the results of a survey showing that three in every four Australians had gambled at least once in the past 12 months, 38% of which doing it on a weekly basis, claiming that at least half of those gambling are at risk of experiencing gambling-related issues.

Other industry executives set to appear before the inquiry will be the CEOs of Tabcorp and Sportsbet, Adan Rytenskild and Barni Evans, former Queensland premier Anna Bligh for the Australian Banking Association, and ex-federal cabinet minister who chairs the industry Responsible Wagering Australia group, Nick Minchin.

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This concern has finally made it to the very top of the organizaiton, with the AFL chief executive, Gillon McLachlan, acknowledging that there seem to be too many gambling ads currently permeating the sport.

AFL Boss Suggests Organization Doubling Down on Gambling Restrictions

His remarks come at a time when there has been growing opposition to gambling advertisements in the AFL and other sports, with academics, politicians, researchers, and consumers all calling for sports bodies to do the right thing and suspend gambling advertisements altogether.

Yet, this presents its own challenges, as many sports clubs and competitions have grown too reliant on funding from the betting and gambling industry. McLachlan did acknowledge that there are way too many ads as of right now, although he sounded reluctant to push for banning ads altogether.

“I don’t have a problem that other people do around wagering, I just think the volume is too much. It’s in your face,” he told Melbourne radio station 3AW. McLachlan confirmed that his organizaiton is currently looking into a proposal to restrict the number of ads seen during sports competitions and events.

But there are fears, too, including among AFL loyalists. Many people worry that should the number of ads be reduced, this would have an impact on grassroots investment and will leave many sports bodies without the means to nurture a healthy community at the lower tiers. The AFL even objected officially to a reduction in the rate of gambling ads.

McLachlan’s words now seem to not follow up on this previous position, although his words may also reflect a broader change in attitude in the organization. McLachlan was pretty clear on prohibition, though, arguing that the AFL would not back a full ban on gambling. While this may be true, regulators are worried that advertisement does not happen the right way.

Support for Banning Gambling Ads in Australia Ever Stronger

According to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, children are still able to see gambling adverts, and this should be avoided. There also seems to be a record support for suspending gambling advertisements on TV and the radio, with 76% out of 3,000 surveyed people by the AFL’s Fan Association confirming that they were all for a ban.

The AFL continues to reassess its gambling practices and policies. A spokesperson confirmed that the AFL is broadcasting gambling ads at particular times of day when children are not able to see them.

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Gambling advertising is causing serious concern for fans of the Australian Football League (AFL), the findings of the annual AFL Fans Association survey revealed.

Concerned about Their Children

The survey conducted among almost 3,000 respondents and reported by The Age revealed that 47% of them believe gambling advertising is the most cause of concern, leaving historically top-ranked umpiring issues and rule changes second and raising more questions about the need for further regulation in the sector.

According to the survey findings, “in addition to the recognized issues of problem gamblers destroying families, there is concern about the normalization and grooming of children as future gamblers due to the sheer volume of gambling advertising” that is bombarding them while watching football.

According to 79% of the respondents, gambling advertising should be banned from grounds, 76% would support a ban from broadcasting, and 62% believe that the AFL should not receive any revenue from gambling advertising.

“Whilst there is some recognition of the need for responsible gambling and fans’ right to gamble on AFL if they wish, there is a clear consensus that the volume of gambling advertising is morally inappropriate and should be banned given the social and family impacts,” the survey stated.

AFL against Further Regulation

Against the idea of further restrictions, the AFL issued a statement reiterating the benefits of its wagering partnership in terms of implementing robust integrity measures and its ability to invest back into the game.

An AFL spokesman also outlined that the league “has strict restrictions surrounding the times that gambling advertising is permitted and have reduced the amount of wagering branding and signage at grounds, [while] players, coaches and officials are not permitted to encourage, induce, advertise or promote betting” on events administered by the league.

AFL’s current sponsorship deal with Sportsbet is worth between AU$12 million ($8.1 million) and AU$13 million ($8.7 million) a year of which 28% is paid to the players. The deal also allows AFL’s partner to use player image rights for promotional purposes.

Devising a ‘Planned Approach’

AFL Fans Association’s president Ron Issko believes that if the league, its various stakeholders, fans and broadcasters sit together, they will be able to devise “a planned approach” how “to reduce the ads over a period of time” initially and eventually eliminate them,” suggesting there will be ways to compensate the AFL for the lost revenue.

The survey comes during the ongoing inquiry into online gambling harm led by Labor MP Peta Murphy and is likely to add fuel to the need for further regulation in the sector while major sports bodies, including the AFL and NRL, are strongly opposing the possibility of new restrictions.

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The majority of Australian Football League (AFL) players are unaware that they can opt out from having their images used by AFL’s sports betting partner, Sportsbet, for promotional purposes.

The Majority Has No Idea They Can Opt Out

The deal with Sportsbet brings between AU$12 million ($8.1 million) and AU$13 million ($8.7 million) a year to the league’s coffers, of which 28% is paid to the players. Players also receive a 28% share of all football-related revenue generated by the league and the clubs.

Under AFL rules, players cannot participate in any shape or form in activities encouraging sports betting on games from the league but the league’s sports betting partner can exclusively use their images to promote brand awareness unless they explicitly stated otherwise, The Age reported.

But the majority of them are not aware that they can opt out and not let Sportsbet use their images to promote gambling. Contacted by the media, some of the players expressed certain reservations about the idea of their images being used to promote betting, yet had not expressed that with Sportsbet, effectively letting it use their images.

Ethical Reasons and Past Gambling Problems     

Several high-profile players such as Melbourne’s premiership full-forward goalkicker Ben Brown have refused to allow Sportsbet to use their image and promote betting on the AFL, citing ethical, reputational and even commercial reasons.

In addition to Brown, who opted out for ethical reasons, the media claims there is another high-profile player who also opted out as he was feeling uncomfortable with the idea of his image being associated with gambling activities but wished to remain anonymous.

And these two players are not the only ones who have opted out as according to agents, other players also used the option to restrict the AFL’s wagering partner from using their images citing their own gambling problems in the past.

The percentage of players who have opted this year remains relatively small, in line with the fewer than 4%, or around 30 players out of more than 800, who chose to stop the league’s official wagering partner from making them a passive part of its promotional activities.

Public attitude towards gambling and gambling advertising in particular in Australia is increasingly shifting from being one of indifference to proactively asking for more scrutiny of the increased presence of betting firms in the country’s biggest media and its impact on gambling harm.

Leagues and operators are likely to expect further curbing of gambling advertising as evidence suggests that the current regime is weak.

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