Crowe and Peter Holmes à Court, a millionaire businessman
who co-owns the South Sydney Rabbitohs club with the actor, persuaded the
club’s board yesterday to take the financially risky step of scrapping the 160
machines, known in Australia
as “pokies”. The machines bring in A$1 million (£430,000) for the club every
year – which is believed to constitute as much as 85 per cent of its revenues.
The actor and Mr Holmes à Court, who joined forces last year
to take a 75 per cent stake in the club for A$3 million, argued that reliance
on gaming machines had adverse effects on the community of Redfern, a key
support base for the club in inner Sydney.
Half the club’s gaming income has come from people on social security. The club
will rely on attracting new members to a redeveloped club complex.
In a letter to club members in September, the pair said: “We
are not moralising here, we just believe that low-income areas like Redfern
need [fewer] poker machines rather than more. We believe a club can be
successful if it caters for our members and the broad community; is a place
where families can gather for conversation and good food; and the distracting
din of pokies doesn’t stop the conversation or drown out live music.”
The move reflects growing concern in Australia at the social impact of such devices,
which in metropolitan Sydney
alone turn over A$2.4 billion. Kevin Rudd, the new Prime Minister, has
criticised the dependence of state governments on gaming machine taxes and has
promised to break their hold. Even so, his political opponents point out that
the gambling industry is a leading donor to his Labor Party.
The states collect about A$4 billion a year in taxes from
gaming machines. In the states of New South Wales
and Victoria, these taxes represent between 12
and 15 per cent of annual budgets and New South Wales
is said to have 10 per cent of the world’s poker machines – more than the United States.
The most recent national study of gaming estimated that 330,000 Australians had
severe or moderate gambling problems and that 70 per cent were addicted to
poker machines. “I hate poker machines and I know something of their impact on
families,” Mr Rudd said.
Crowe has micromanaged many of the presentational changes at
South Sydney, designing the club kit and
dressing players in Armani suits off the field. In February Crowe replaced
cheerleaders with a drumming band after his wife, Danielle Spencer, and other
fans complained that they made women uncomfortable.
Members must vote on the proposal to remove slot machines,
but it has received overwhelming public support.
Oscar-winning
actor Russell Crowe bans gaming machines at his …