Bernard Keane was spot on in Crikey earlier this week when he hammered Australia’s gambling industry for its record-breaking levels of political donations in 2017-18 — particularly from the pokies-dominated Australian Hotels Association, whose biggest member is Woolworths.
And as we grapple with the recommendations from the Hayne royal commission into financial services misconduct, these latest examples of gambling industry influence-pedalling raise the legitimate question: should we have a royal commission into Australia’s $24 billion-a-year gambling industry?
After all, Australia has just been through its busiest burst of royal commissions in history, with no less than 10 announced or completed over the past six years:
- 2013-17: federal child sex abuse royal commission
- 2013-14: Pink Batts royal commission with Ian Hanger QC
- 2014-15: royal commission into trade union governance led by Dyson Heydon
- 2015-16: Victorian royal commission into family violence with three commissioners led by Marcia Neave
- 2016-17: federal royal commission into NT children in detention led by Margaret White and Mick Gooda
- 2017-19: banking royal commission by Kenneth Hayne, producing see three final reports
- 2017-19: Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission in South Australia led by Bret Walker SC
- 2019: Mental Health Royal Commission in Victoria
- 2019: Lawyer X royal commission in Victoria
- 2018-20: Federal aged care royal commission led by Richard Tracey and Lynelle Briggs — started October 2018 and final report due by April 30, 2020.
Compare that with the royal commission drought for the six years before that between when the AWB report was delivered on November 24, 2006, and when Julia Gillard announced the child abuse royal commission on November 12, 2012.
All we had during that period was the Victorian bushfires royal commission in 2009-10 and the 2008 equine influenza probe, although that wasn’t strictly a royal commission but more an independent commission of inquiry.
Following Hayne, royal commissions are increasingly well regarded by Australians. It is hard to argue with the overall positive contribution that the family violence, child abuse and financial services royal commissions have added to Australia.
Indeed, if you want to keep the banks honest, parliament should legislate for a $100 million financial services royal commission every seven years, with the next kicking off in 2026.
Putting long-term banker bonus payments into a seven-year pool, which only paid out after each royal commission, would be another excellent reform if you really wanted to tackle the culture of greed driven by financial incentives.
A one-off gambling industry royal commission focusing on customer rip-offs would probably strike some seriously shocking material given the enormous harm caused by the industry, which is soaking a world-record $24 billion a year from Australians.
While the gigantic Australian financial services industry has clearly been ripping off huge numbers of Australians, at least it is primarily owned by millions of ordinary Australian shareholders and Australian-based super funds or institutional investors.
The gambling industry is very different because it is dominated by ruthless multi-nationals such as Canada’s The Stars Group (owner of BetEasy), UK firm GVC (parent of Ladbrokes) and Ireland’s Paddy Power Betfair (owner of Sportsbet), along with three local billionaires: James Packer, Bruce Mathieson and Len Ainsworth.
Throw in a handful of public companies like Tabcorp, Woolworths, Aristocrat, Star Entertainment, Crown Resorts and Ainsworth Gaming Technology and you’ve got the gambling industry pretty much covered — although don’t ignore the 5000 clubs and pubs with pokies strewn across all corners of the country, with the exception of Western Australia.
The gambling industry is notorious for forum shopping to get favourable licensing or planning deals, so the anti-gambling movement doesn’t care whether it’s the feds or one of the eight state or territory governments who fire the starter’s gun.
A joint federal-state royal commission would be ideal, with NSW the logical partner given it hasn’t had a royal commission since Bob Carr’s effort on corrupt cops in the 1990s and it also has the bigger per capita gambling spend in Australia thanks to the $7 billion a year its citizens drop on the pokies.
As an example of gambling industry forum shopping, rather than Crown Resorts dealing with City of Melbourne to get approval for its proposed $1.75 billion skyscraper in Melbourne, James Packer went straight to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, who ordered his planning minister to approve the deal.
With the planning scheme amendment lapsing from inaction on March 2, Crown has asked for an extension as The Age reported yesterday.
I have been reliably informed that Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews attended at least two private meetings with James Packer at Crown before approval to build the largest building in the southern hemisphere was granted.
The 2017-18 donations figures revealed last Friday also disclose that Crown donated $35,000 to the Victorian ALP in 2017-18. How much will they donate if approval is granted?
These are the sorts of issues which should be examined in a royal commission into Australia’s gambling industry, particularly after the revelation that the industry donated at least $3 million to political parties in 2017-18, which was a record.
Stephen Mayne works part time at The Alliance for Gambling Reform and was not paid for this item.
Great piece, Stephen. Indeed a royal commission into the whole gambling industry and it’s political connections
( donations ) is probably the only way for conscience driven people to save other people from themselves.
It’s beyond calculation of the misery, torment, financial stress, family break-down, suicides, mental health to name a few, caused by gambling addiction. And what do political parties do?…they accept donations which is the rubber stamp of endorsement. Jesus is still weeping.
Agreed. A Royal Commission is the way forward. How politicians miss the ground-swell of public opinion on this leaves me breathless. It almost seems government policy is representative for the minority gamblers. The community Australia wide want action. We want to see solid bipartisanship policy that restricts the debilitating effects of gambling and house-hold misery on families and individuals alike.
Australia and NZ are the only countries that enforce bike helmets, the only country currently limiting the speed a e-bikes, I cannot buy a tiny bit of alcohol at the chemist to fix bleach stains in a dark dress, the list could go on. All those rules to prevent death or injury, though the chances of injuries or death due to these incidents are minor compared to the damage the gambling industry does. We ban e-cigarettes as they might harm or entice children to start smoking but we allow cigarettes which course greater harm. Might this have something to do with the amount of money our government and politicians make? Surely, it would have nothing to do with corruption
Excellent information & suggestions here, Stephen. Particularly the 7-year banker bonus pool reliant on the findings of regular Royal Commissions – brilliant.
Lamentably, gambling addicts are somewhat reminiscent of Trump supporters ie: even when given proof of bad behaviour they do not change their behaviour. No matter how shameful the revelations of a Royal Commission into gambling may be, it will require governments to change industry regulation because the addicts are in too deep to care.
Stephen, good piece and fully support, I’m a bit frustrated with The Alliance for Gambling Reform though focusing all their presence and actions around pokies #pokiesplayyou @pokiecon. I’m no fan of pokies, but to me the most urgent and insidious problem is the invasion of television online betting app advertising, some of it masquerading as news and sports content. Nothing is doing more towards the normalisation of betting on everything with younger people. Many of them will never set foot in a club or hotel pokie room, it isn’t their scene, but they have their phones with them 24/7. I understand the problem with pokies, but the more urgent focus is online and mobile betting apps advertising and the sheer volume and pervasiveness of it.
Royal commissions are only ever as good as their terms of reference and timelines dictate, as we have seen with this latest one. Complaints that it is a bit of a wet lettuce are I imagine due to these constraints, so the success of any rc into the pokies or the gambling industry generally will depend on who sets it up.
I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for Governments to set up a RC into Pokies as they are probably among the greatest beneficiaries from this industry via taxes. Over the last thirty odd years I have seen the returns to industry players and governments skyrocket while returns to players have consequently diminished resulting in the massive losses to the playing public that are now firmly entrenched.