Collingwood & Gambling: if I were a betting man then....

[watt price tully]

I was just about to post a congratulatory thread about Collingwood trying to rid itself of reliance on Pokies as a source of revenue that I'd read somewhere.

I thought finally, great stuff Pies & I acknowledge the time it takes to responsibly divest from pokies & look to other forms of revenue. Lets not kid ourselves, gambling is an addiction & causes harm to not just the addicts but to their family, friends and work colleagues amongst others.

As I was searching for a link to use I came across this:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/collingwood/collingwood-has-applied-for-more-pokies-days-after-saying-to-wanted-to-be-pokiesfree/news-story/8f551f2ea95201a7ae077c5e340fafa7

WTF?

[thompsoc]

what are we?
A football club or a bloody social and cultural movement!
And people wonder why football has lost it's soul.
People support a football club because it is tribal!
Nothing more and nothing less.
I don't give a stuff where our money comes from so long as it is legal.
But so many want a bloody agenda to nail to our boat.
I don't care about any cause or agenda or movement or political correctness when it comes to football.
I care only about a piece of inflated leather being kicked between two sticks!
Why?
Because it is a game not Mao's little red book.

[watt price tully]

[thompsoc]

[watt price tully]

[HAL]

When do I do it?

[Wokko]

I'm about as far from a social justice warrior as you can get, if there is some way of representing the political spectrum then WPT and I are diametrically opposed.

I agree with him on this wholeheartedly, I don't like a club that proudly wears the working class tag of our history to be taking money from those very people through addictive money sucking machines.

If we want to run a casino then I'd be ok with it, but I really don't like suburban pokies. I'm not saying ban them or any such thing, but I'd like our club to divest themselves of them and look at other revenue streams.

[thompsoc]

i truly hate pokies ...I cannot stand them.
But today it is pokies next it is beer and alcohol
And you will get the social justice warriors going on about
serving alcohol at our games.
And then it will be junk food and sugar drinks
And then it will be who makes the clothes on our player backs
And then it will be 100% renewables at all our games....
And on and on it will go because the puritans need a cause.
Keep the social justice warriors out of my football.

[Greyjoy]

I hate pokies and think it's great that the more vulnerable of our supporters will not be wasting their money at our pokies.

Alcohol and junk food though, they're an essential part of footy culture. Can't take that away or I'd rather go elsewhere or stay home.

[thompsoc]

[HAL]

Why not?

[Darkstranger]

Roll out the trollers....

I laugh at you guys, I'm visualising a bunch of old dudes in a corner pub with nothing else to do but whinge about the one thing that keeps us interested & sane...The Mighty Pies.

If we don't have a money stream coming in we wont be around for long in this ever growing competitive market called AFL.

Do you want us to be another Norf? or Aints? or Dees? or Bulldogs? scratching to survive year on year? well that's what would happen if we didn't have pokies... like it or hate it, those in Glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

PS: ban alcohol, that's what kills people!

[CarringbushCigar]

The club will argue or believe internally that the AFL club model and equalisation etc etc., makes it impossible to eliminate pokie revenue from the game

same argument turnbull has adopted re climate change
'we will do our bit but when all the others agree'

if the new pokies were for a social club area well it is what it is

wish we could have a social club with social activities rather than blood sucking antisocial machines for one
i don't believe pokies have to be anti-social, but its all in their design to maximise revenue and exploit addictive vulnerabilities

what happened to cards, backgammon, bridge, chess clubs, theatre groups, yoga, pilates, around a bar/food area run at no profit or small loss - who cares ?

aren't we a non-profit organisation who is making millions ?
aren't we supposed to be community focused?
why are we just under the covers community focused - invisible work with homeless etc etc. being cynical but is this just another way of purchasing property with guaranteed rents, albeit low ones ?

how about we change the culture back to what was australian - community sporting clubs - where members support and get to enjoy the fruits of the club's facilities at a reasonable fair price

[jackcass]

Meh... think that horse has already bolted. Once pokies were allowed in Victoria, the club would be mad not to jump on board. Taking a moral stance and ceasing to run pokies now won't stop gamblers using them or even impact overall numbers of machines in specific areas as someone else will only be too keen to pick up the slack. Perhaps it should be more about what the club therefore does with the revenues from these venues.

[mattys123]

You've all missed the bigger story here.

The glasshouse is a money pit, it's sucking us dry already.

Pert has admitted that the Glasshouse is losing money, thus trying to make this deal with the City council to get some cash into the joint.

That's the real story here, that that glasshouse, something that wasn't needed, is having a financial strain on the club already.