Research Shows Australian Poker Machine Operators Are Not Putting Enough Back Into Local Communities

    SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, May 16, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Online Pokies 4U has published the results of Uniting Care Australia's research which shows that Poker Machine Operators are only putting a fraction of the money spent on pokie machines back into local communities.

The Key findings of the research, which can also be viewed on the Online Pokies 4U website, were as follows:

- Poker machine losses tend to be higher in communities with lower incomes. Those communities with lower incomes also tend to have higher numbers of poker machines, a factor that is also associated with higher average losses.

- More than half the 41 communities investigated experienced losses greater than 10% of median individual income. The worst hit community was Blaxland (NSW) where spent more than a third of their median income on poker machines in 2011.

- Levels of community funding and support provided by poker machine operators is small in comparison to the amount of money lost by poker machine users within local communities. For example, in Blaxland (NSW) where losses were more than $177 million p.a., the value of money put back into the community was only 1.4% ($2.5 million).

Head of http://onlinepokies4u.com/, John Simms commented; "We feel it's important to publish research on the effects of Poker Machine gambling in Australia, whether it's good news or bad news. It seems clear to us that this latest research indicates that Poker Machine Operators should be putting more back into the communities they are making money from".

Online Pokies 4U was launched in 2010 by a team of pokie enthusiasts who are dedicated to bringing both the good and the bad aspects of Poker Machines to the Australian public.

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