LICENSED clubs from Bulahdelah to the Tweed stand to collectively lose $112 million a year if the federal government succeeds in implementing mandatory pre-commitment limits on poker machine gambling.
Even worse would be the resulting loss of local jobs, the CEO of Taree's largest club has predicted.
Geoff Garnett, chief executive officer of Club Taree, along with club president Carl Guy, was among 100 representatives of the industry to attend a ClubsNSW meeting at Coffs Harbour last week to discuss the technology which Tasmanian independent MP Andrew Wilkie is demanding be installed in all Australian premises with poker machines, in return for his support of Julia Gillard as prime minister.
Mr Wilkie was one of three independents (another being local member for Lyne Rob Oakeshott) who pledged allegiance with Ms Gillard last year in order to prevent a hung parliament, and implementation of the gambling changes was one of his key demands.
Ms Gillard has received legal advice that she has the power to force poker machine gamblers to set a spending limit (a pre-commitment), and she may need to use it if she wants to remain in power.
The new technology would see 200,000 poker machines across Australia linked electronically, with players forced to place a limit on how much they want to gamble.
State governments have already signalled they have objections to Ms Gillard's request that they introduce mandatory pre-commitment limits, and now the clubs industry is joining the fight.
There are mounting concerns that the scheme would affect the viability of rural pubs and clubs and be expensive to implement.
The Australian club industry is now engaged in a vigorous public debate, with Clubs NSW hosting last week's talks at the Coffs Harbour Ex-Services Club to explain the technology to industry representatives from Bulahdelah to the Queensland border.
The scheme has been described in industry circles as "a heavy-handed and intrusive proposal, the offspring of a political marriage of convenience, consummated after the last Federal election".
It is putting pressure on Mr Oakeshott and New England MP Tony Windsor, both of whom represent NSW regional seats with high levels of licensed club membership and participation.
Industry representatives are claiming that pre-commitment technology using a smart card which would be required of every poker machine player would cost clubs about $5000 a machine to install and could lead to a 30 per cent drop in pokie profits during the first year of operation.
Mr Garnett, on his return from the Coffs Harbour talks hosted by Clubs NSW chairman Peter Newell, said clubs such as his and others in the Manning area, along with their counterparts everywhere face a huge loss in annual revenue if they are forced to comply with the legislation.
Mr Newell told the Far North Coast talks that leading problem gambling experts have expressed concerns that the technology is a waste of billions of dollars.
Mr Garnett said ClubsAustralia and ClubsNSW were determined to "keep the pressure on, to get some sense into the argument".
"No studies have ever been conducted to prove it's the right thing to curb problem gamblers, and obviously installing the technology is going to cost quite a substantial amount of money," he said.
"The industry we know will be completely different if this goes ahead."
He said that while everyone agreed "one problem gambler is one too many", he said that 99.4 per cent of the population who used poker machines purely as entertainment would be penalised. Just 0.6 per cent of the population has a poker machine gambling problem, he added.
"Clubs everywhere ? ourselves included ? find it a very difficult argument to swallow. We estimate 40 per cent of our revenue will go, with the prediction also that the technology will cost $2.5 billion to install across Australia.
"They require the technology to be installed by 2014, but the manufacturers estimate it will take 14 years to install because the technology is not available."
Mr Garnett said he had questioned Mr Oakeshott on the impact the legislation would have on clubs and their inability to survive, and the spin-off impact on local communities, particularly in rural areas where clubs are major employers and substantial contributors to the local economy.
As well, "the federal government would end up minus the GST (from club turnover), and State governments would be minus gaming tax revenue, if this was implemented," Mr Garnett added.
He is concerned at the number of people who would lose their jobs, "and then where would the money come from, towards the increased unemployment benefits?"
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"Peop le treat poker machines as entertainment, but they are also contributing greatly to community life," he said.
"What would happen to the major rugby league clubs, which are supported by the licenced venues?
"What would happen to the many community and sporting clubs that Club Taree and others like us support in our local communities?
"What wouild happen to the Meals on Wheels service which we conduct in the Taree area, if these constraints were placed upon our operation?
"All of this is work that clubs do for their communities, and all will cease. This has not been thought through at all.
"To me, the big disappointment is that the cost has not been factored in, and there has been no explanation.
"The thing I find extremnely difficult to comprehend is that everything in respect of this is about poker machines, yet poker machines are already highly regulated with players being able already to set limits and ask to be excluded from premises if they over-commit.
"If these controls are taken away from them, there is the risk they will sit at home on the internet on gambling sites, and what's to stop them gambling on the horses or lotteries?
"Gambling is a disease a person may have, and they need help, but this new idea will not fix the problem.
"What the government should be looking at is how they can help these people. It's like shutting the gate after the horse has bolted."
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