Gambling and politics seem to become more and more related in Tasmania, especially at a time when the pledge of the Labor Party to suspend pokies from clubs and pubs and restrict them to local casinos only has grown to a key election issue. What is more, gambling operators have been widely criticised for making contributions to Australian political parties.
Gambling issues seem to have influenced on the results which political parties generated at the elections at the beginning of March.
A few days ago, Tasmanian residents re-elected the Liberal Government of Will Hodgman, with a total of 50.46% of the total vote and no less than 13 out of the 25 seats won by the Liberal Party. The Labor Party, on the other hand, received a 32.76% share of the total votes, winning eight seats and having a chance to get three more. The Tasmanian Greens received a total of 10.03% of the votes, securing one seat. The Jacqui Lambie Network received a 3.2% share of the total votes.
The combined vote share accumulated by the major parties amounted to 83% of the overall number of votes, which is the highest one reached since the elections in 1986.
Tasmanian Pokies and Political Donations Issues
As far as poker machines are concerned, the Greens were the first to raise the issue. Then, the Labor Party promised to ban poker machines from pubs and clubs and keep them restricted only to local casino venues. Reportedly, the pledge that seems to have brought the Labor Party some of the Greens votes was made to challenge the Federal Group’s owners who have held exclusive licensing rights for clubs and pubs-located pokies for more than two decades.
Reportedly, the amount lost by Tasmanian residents on poker machines is estimated to over AU$100 million on an annual basis.
The relation between politics and gambling in Australia gets even tighter when political donations of gambling operators are taken into account. Currently, political parties are not obliged to disclose the the money contributions they get until the end of the fiscal year. In addition, the existing legislation does not require from gambling operators to reveal how much they have spent on advertising, even if it comes to political parties advertising.
For the time being, political parties are obliged to disclose donations larger than AU$13,200. Reportedly, these requirements have prevented sources of many political contributions to be revealed to the wider public.
According to Labor Party claims, the amount spent by Liberals on advertising is estimated to AU$5 million.
At the beginning of February, the Alliance for Gambling Reform (AGR) urged called the country’s Government to fully ban donations made by gambling companies to local political parties. The request made by the AGR came after media reports that an amount of at least AU$1.5 million was redirected by the gambling industry to major political parties in Australia in 2016-2017.
The main contributors to local political parties recognised in the annual financial disclosure returns of the Australian Electoral Commission were Crown Resorts, Tabcorp, Ros Packer, Clubs NSW and Clubs Australia, as well as the Australian Hotel Association.
- Author
Daniel Williams
