Club Mgmt. Board of Directors as led by President Dave Barham

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I don’t want him on the board, but there’s also a maximum term for directors and once he’s hit the maximum he can’t stand for election nor can he be appointed to a vacancy. He also can’t lead an alternate ticket.
You can serve a max of three terms.
 

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Absolutely shameful that the club won't commit to getting out of pokies entirely even if alternative revenue streams are established.
Just to be clear; I detest pokies and gambling in general.

However, the entire league is propped up by sports betting companies. I genuinely don't see the argument in releasing an income stream that we own and control when funds from the AFL come in the form of bonus bets ...

I also find it suspicious that there seems to be a push only against this form of gambling ... Is it because the clubs own the licences themselves without any AFL oversight required or approval granted?
 
I also find it suspicious that there seems to be a push only against this form of gambling ... Is it because the clubs own the licences themselves without any AFL oversight required or approval granted?

Not really, pokies are a very visible, harmful form of gambling.

There's no skill, the machines are simply programmed to repay a percentage of every dollar put in over time. They usually harm those who can least afford it, and are pretty highly correlated with family violence incidents.


The correlation is strongest in Melton, which has the highest concentration of AFL machines in Victoria, and where the increase in family violence incidents between 2013-2017 was a staggering 35 per cent.

Guess where Essendon operates ~ half their pokie machines?


Melton City councillors voted 8-0 in favour of allowing the Bombers to continue operations at the Melton Country Club on Monday night – home to 90 poker machines.

With the existing lease not due to expire until February 2022, the new agreement takes the licence up until 2047.
 

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Yeah it's a misleading headline (and a pretty poor analysis); a correlation is not a 'link'. Reminds me of the study done in the US which demonstrated a link between an increase in ice-cream sales and an increase in homicides. Spoiler alert, ice cream doesn't make people kill each other - but both ice cream and murder are more prevalent during heat waves. I dare say the common denominator here is 'low socio-economic area' which statistically is more likely to have higher rates of pokies usage and family violence.

The strong and growing opposition to AFL clubs owning pokie machines is a little odd, considering the AFL is bombarding children with sports betting ads all through their coverage and website/social media, supporting those companies very deliberate mission to poison young people's brains to associate sports with gambling and become life-long gamblers.

The damage of pokies is very visible given people are physically present sitting at machines, whereas sports gamblers are at home on the couch or at the pub with their mates pouring their money down the toilet through an app on their phone. Might also be a view that pokies target those in the lowest socio-economic areas whereas sports gambling is a bit more 'middle class', but I don't know that one is more damaging than another.

Personally I think it's pretty gross for professional sporting clubs and leagues to use and promote gambling to generate profits. Absolutely undercuts any claims of supporting communities or caring about society.
 
Yeah it's a misleading headline (and a pretty poor analysis); a correlation is not a 'link'. Reminds me of the study done in the US which demonstrated a link between an increase in ice-cream sales and an increase in homicides. Spoiler alert, ice cream doesn't make people kill each other - but both ice cream and murder are more prevalent during heat waves. I dare say the common denominator here is 'low socio-economic area' which statistically is more likely to have higher rates of pokies usage and family violence.

The strong and growing opposition to AFL clubs owning pokie machines is a little odd, considering the AFL is bombarding children with sports betting ads all through their coverage and website/social media, supporting those companies very deliberate mission to poison young people's brains to associate sports with gambling and become life-long gamblers.

The damage of pokies is very visible given people are physically present sitting at machines, whereas sports gamblers are at home on the couch or at the pub with their mates pouring their money down the toilet through an app on their phone. Might also be a view that pokies target those in the lowest socio-economic areas whereas sports gambling is a bit more 'middle class', but I don't know that one is more damaging than another.

Personally I think it's pretty gross for professional sporting clubs and leagues to use and promote gambling to generate profits. Absolutely undercuts any claims of supporting communities or caring about society.

A correlation can be a link.

Number of goals scored would be highly correlated with winning football games for example.

Gambling losses is pretty well known to cause harmful outcomes, financial pressures is pretty well known to cause financial outcomes, therefore pokies usage resulting in harmful outcomes is probably not an entirely unrelated correlation.

And yes, sports betting should also be a target and far better regulated than it is.
 
Not really, pokies are a very visible, harmful form of gambling.

There's no skill, the machines are simply programmed to repay a percentage of every dollar put in over time. They usually harm those who can least afford it, and are pretty highly correlated with family violence incidents.




Guess where Essendon operates ~ half their pokie machines?

Are we then looking to ban alcohol which causes just as much family violence and public violence and injury?

On top of that footy clubs getting out of them is not solving the issues . All it is doing is making the clubs look warm and fuzzy. Not like the machines go. Someone else just runs them.
In all honesty the racing clubs should be the venues with pokies given they are a gambling industry .

I have no issues with poker machines going. Do not play them and if they went so be it . I fully understand the issues but t is a double edged sword as these clubs do provide a crap load of revenue to the government and employment as well.
 
Not really, pokies are a very visible, harmful form of gambling.

There's no skill, the machines are simply programmed to repay a percentage of every dollar put in over time. They usually harm those who can least afford it, and are pretty highly correlated with family violence incidents.




Guess where Essendon operates ~ half their pokie machines?

Agree with almost everything you said. However, sports betting is arguably far more visible and accessible in this day and age.

There is no skill involved in sports betting. The gambling companies are infecting the entire sporting landscape of the nation and everyone is in on the con.

Us letting go of the pokies will only cut off a revenue stream in order to get a little puff piece in the paper.
 
Much like how smoking is just highly correlated with lung cancer I suppose.
pokies are gross and bad but this isn’t a great comparison. smoking = cancer is pretty straightforward but there are lots of moving parts when it comes to stuff like rates of DV in particular suburbs with a number of root causes that need to be addressed.
 
Are we then looking to ban alcohol which causes just as much family violence and public violence and injury?

On top of that footy clubs getting out of them is not solving the issues . All it is doing is making the clubs look warm and fuzzy. Not like the machines go. Someone else just runs them.
In all honesty the racing clubs should be the venues with pokies given they are a gambling industry .

I have no issues with poker machines going. Do not play them and if they went so be it . I fully understand the issues but t is a double edged sword as these clubs do provide a crap load of revenue to the government and employment as well.
Alcohol is actually a very good case study for this issue. The alcohol industry has used advertising and sponsorship to very successfully infect us all with mental associations from a young age. Watching the footy? Grab a beer! Celebrating good fortune? Crack open the bubbly! Been a rough day? Pour yourself a glass of scotch. Working hard? Ice cold beer! BBQ? Beer! Holiday? Cocktails! etc etc etc.

I think of myself as being pretty self-aware and conscious of when I'm being marketed to, but I definitely fall for each of these marketing tactics. I wouldn't dream of inviting mates over to watch the footy without having a slab of beer in the fridge. Because footy = beer.

The gambling industry is following suit and the younger generation (in fact I even see it with some of my own generation) won't be able to think about sport without also thinking about (or partaking in) the punt.
 
Alcohol is actually a very good case study for this issue. The alcohol industry has used advertising and sponsorship to very successfully infect us all with mental associations from a young age. Watching the footy? Grab a beer! Celebrating good fortune? Crack open the bubbly! Been a rough day? Pour yourself a glass of scotch. Working hard? Ice cold beer! BBQ? Beer! Holiday? Cocktails! etc etc etc.

I think of myself as being pretty self-aware and conscious of when I'm being marketed to, but I definitely fall for each of these marketing tactics. I wouldn't dream of inviting mates over to watch the footy without having a slab of beer in the fridge. Because footy = beer.

The gambling industry is following suit and the younger generation (in fact I even see it with some of my own generation) won't be able to think about sport without also thinking about (or partaking in) the punt.

Yeah only have to hear tradies telling anecdotes about their apprentices being most excited about being able to Sportsbet account when they turn 18 rather than going to the pub/getting their license to understand just how culturally ingrained gambling is becoming from a young age.
 
Alcohol is not a good analogy. You can buy it anywhere. Pokies need a venue and Essendon deliberately targets poorer suburbs to exploit. Socially irresponsible and quite pathetic
 
If we're going down the moral police route, the league should:

  • Remove any alcohol sponsorships and ads
  • Remove any gambling ads, financial ties, or any mentions of. (Any betting that happens should be ignored by the league)
  • Have a rehabilitation program for any players reported and/or found for mistreatment of women, minorities or LGBTIQ people. That includes "locker room bants". Failure to adhere after rehab results in termination
  • Removal of people such as Wayne Carey and Campbell Brown from any media coverage (their employment is passive acceptance of violent behaviour, and sends a message to impressionable people that you can act like that and still be glamorised)
 
Absolutely shameful that the club won't commit to getting out of pokies entirely even if alternative revenue streams are established.

I'm not.

Can't afford to lose money on gambling? dont do it. Be adults with your money like everything else in life. Plenty of ways people can get help with addiction these days.

This nanny state crackdown on gambling is ridiculous IMO. I'm all for better and always improving regulation, but just woke removal of them? nah.

When Coles & Woolworths stop selling obese people snickers, i might buy into it a little more.
 
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Are we then looking to ban alcohol which causes just as much family violence and public violence and injury?

On top of that footy clubs getting out of them is not solving the issues . All it is doing is making the clubs look warm and fuzzy. Not like the machines go. Someone else just runs them.
In all honesty the racing clubs should be the venues with pokies given they are a gambling industry .

I have no issues with poker machines going. Do not play them and if they went so be it . I fully understand the issues but t is a double edged sword as these clubs do provide a crap load of revenue to the government and employment as well.

Obesity causes more issues for the economy and health in general than gambling does, and i dont see any type of crack down on fat people being allowed to buy candy bars.

Why is it always pokies that's brought up as the big social bad guy.
 

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