Woolworths Reward Addiction With Pokies Card

Woolworths have already established themselves as the Pokie People and one of the most destructive forces ever to impact this great southern land of ours. In fact we were recently saddened to read that Woolworths and their co-owned ALH Group were actively targeting children and families in the pubs and clubs – so this latest news is actually not surprising at all. Woolworths have well and truly let their feelings be known and I for one would like to be the first to ask them to kindly GO AND FUCK THEMSELVES SLOWLY IN THE ARSE WITH A STOP SIGN (top first)

It’s Fly Buys for Pokie Addicts and Gamblers in General

Anti-poker machine campaigners have slammed supermarket giant Woolworths for introducing a frequent gambling rewards card for poker machines in its string of pokie pubs.

What is it exactly?

The card, designed by poker machine manufacturer Bally Technologies, allows marketing messages to be flashed up on the gambler’s machine as they play, meaning they can order drinks from the machine without interrupting play.

Anti-pokies campaigner Paul Bendat agreed the card is “essentially a Fly Buys for gambling”. “You sign up for a card, you give them a bunch of your personal details and every time you gamble on one of their poker machines, you insert the card,” Mr Bendat said.

“[Voluntary pre-commitment] is the cornerstone of the harm-minimisation policy of the current Victorian Government, ALP, and the past Coalition. And [This card] is entirely counterproductive. There is no morality in it.”

Woolworths’ move is in direct response to government calls for harm minimisation measures to prevent problem gambling. In December, the ALH Group, which is 96 per cent owned by Woolworths, will roll out the Monty’s Reward card in Victoria and Queensland as its “voluntary pre-commitment” measure, after it was piloted in New South Wales. Independent senator Nick Xenophon branded Woolworths’ decision as cynical.

“What was meant to be a harm minimisation measure has been turned by Woolworths into a harm-exacerbation measure by using this card,” he said. “This isn’t so much a loyalty card as an addiction card.”

…an addiction card they can now renew online in four easy steps I might add!

Voluntary Pre-Commitment SCHERMITMANT!

Buried at the end of the card’s brochure is a paragraph on voluntary pre-commitment – which means the gambler has the option to limit their spending – however, the pre-commitment only lasts for 24 hours. (SEE BELOW for copy of Monty's Rewards Ts&Cs)

http://www.montysrewards.com.au/docs/montys_Ts&Cs.pdf

Voluntary Pre-Commitment 12.1 For Members utilising Monty's Rewards at Participating Venues other than in Victoria: 12.1.1 Members may utilise Voluntary Pre-Commitment in conjunction with their Monty's Card. Procedures for doing so are set out in the brochure accompanying the Monty's Rewards application form and as varied and/or replaced from time to time by ALH as detailed on the Website. 12.1.2 If utilised, the Voluntary Pre-Commitment will allow a Member to set a limit on: (a) the amount of time, in a 24 hour period determined by ALH, that the Member may play Games using their Monty's Card; and/or (b) the Member's net loss, in a 24 hour period determined by ALH, on Games played using their Monty's Card. 12.1.3 If a limit referred to in clause 12.1.2 above is reached, the Member will receive an electronic notification superimposed on the screen of the machine upon which the Game is then being played. At that time, although the Member may continue playing Games, the Member will cease to earn Monty's Points as a result of any further Games played before the commencement of trading at a Participating Venue on the next trading day. 12.1.4 If a Member has set a limit referred to in clause 12.1.2 above, any new limit set by the Member that increases the amount of time or net loss, will not take effect until commencement of trading at a Participating Venue on the next trading day.

WoolWorths Are Commited To The Responsible Service of Gaming… MY ARSE!

Let’s open this can of bullshit and expose Woolworths Limited for the lying bunch of fuckwits that they are – because what Woolies deem to be ‘effective measures to minimise gambling harm’ is quite simply not.

Time to Open a Can!

You comfortable? Because I have a feeling this is going to be a long and revealing look into the depressing disconnect between what the ALH Group SHOULD be doing and what the ALH Group ARE doing.

I have taken the liberty of supplying the ALH Group Responsible Service of Gaming requirements and commitments are – please see below where I will summarise each point and then highlight why it’s a PILE OF BULLSHIT

We have a clear commitment to be Australia's most responsible hotel and gaming operator – proudly going above and beyond what's required by legislation – Bruce Mathieson Jnr CEO ALH Group

ALH Charter – Responsible Hotels and Gaming Commitment (544042d98e8a7.pdf)

All gaming machines to have voluntary pre-commitment limits installed by 2014 – two years ahead of any legislation.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-17/woolworths-slammed-by-anti-pokies-groups-gambling-rewards-card/6784210

Comprehensive training including full day annual training for management and key staff at all hotels – mandated.

Report Findings However Indicated Quite the Opposite:

No ALH Staff that we spoke to had ever received any formal training on how to recognize the signs of pokie addiction and/or what steps they should take to reduce the harm and provide the support needed.

NSW Department of Liquor and Gaming –

Responsible Conduct of Gambling

Gaming machines are allowed in registered clubs and hotels. Licensees and venue staff have responsibilities when operating gaming machines.

Responsible Conduct of Gambling (RCG) helps to ensure compliance with the law, reduce gambling related issues and to promote safety (harm minimisation) in venues where there are gaming machines.

Why do you need RCG training?

RCG training is mandatory if your work duties involve gaming machines. This includes, but is not limited to:

licensees of a full hotel licence
secretaries of a registered club
staff with gaming machine duties
staff who pay out winnings
staff who patrol or serve in the gaming machine area

Whether you are a staff member or an employer, you may be fined if you work without a valid competency card, or allow employees to work without one. Find out more about fines.

RCG training course
The RCG training course helps to promote safety in venues where gaming machines are operated.

So You Need an Active Competency cards

A competency card is similar to a driver’s licence or proof of age card, and has a record of training you’ve undertaken to be legally allowed to work in the liquor and gaming industries. The courses recorded on it are:

A competency card is proof you’ve completed training in one or all of these courses.

Please Explain Woolworths Limited!?

This completely contradicts what the ALH Group themselves claim within their Responsible Service of Gaming –

A key focus is our e-learning module providing staff the skills to approach and interact with customers who may be indicating signs of problems with their gambling, and how our self-exclusion program operates.

We partner with agencies such as Gamblers' Help in each state. We want ALH Group staff to learn from these agencies how best to promote the message of responsible gambling. We have established partnerships with The Salvation Army, gambling research experts and mental health organisations. This recognises that problem gambling is a complex issue and requires a multi-level approach.

And Yet We Found The Complete Opposite

Every staff member knew what intoxication looked like and were strict in their adherence to the guidelines of the RSA charter that requires that person or person to be ejected from the premises.

If a gambler spends too much and cannot control their addiction they are not only encouraged back into the ALH owned venue through rewards and membership incentives, they are also forced to eject themselves from the premises' – and even that is something that has to be done through a process that takes a day or two to come into effect and worse still, is only valid for 24 hours anyway?!

Woolworths Give The Ultimate FUCK YOU With their Gaming Charter

Hotel and Gaming Charter. Rigorous internal and external audits.

Introduced in 2010 and updated in 2012 the Hotel and Gaming Charter outlines the companies mission statement and goals in relation to the responsible service of alcohol and gaming. The 11 statements' or promises (hollow words to allow the government to tick the responsible gambling box basically)

We will list and then proceed to tear these 11 promises apart and put the Pauline on Woolies – Please Explain indeed.

Gaming rooms are being screened or separated from other areas of the hotel at all ALH venues.

No, no they are not – see report

Partnerships with expert groups, including Gambler's Help in each state, and the Salvation Army.

David Schwarz – Responsible Gambling Ambassador For the last five years, the ALH Group has worked with David Schwarz, a well-known former professional AFL footballer and reformed problem gambler, as its Responsible Gambling Ambassador. David provides employee education and customer awareness about the importance of asking for help if your gambling becomes a problem. David is available for our staff to discuss any gambling problems they or their families and friends may be experiencing.

This hotel offers a self-exclusion program – 1800858858

Woolworths really are the Pokie People!

The 11 Promises – and We’ll Tear These Ones a New One Shortly Too

1 We provide a safe, friendly environment in which all hotel customers can socialise and enjoy themselves in a good atmosphere.
2 We provide good value, good quality meals and family friendly dining experiences.
3 We believe we have a shared responsibility, along with individuals, families, communities and governments, to ensure responsible behaviour.
4 We do not conduct promotions which encourage irresponsible drinking.
5 We restrict gaming room access to adults and ensure gaming rooms are screened or separated from other areas of the hotel, so as to not to attract children.
6 We were the first national hotel operator to support voluntary pre-commitment – a system that helps players stick to their limit by nominating maximum spending or time limits on gaming machines. This system will be implemented at all ALH Hotels by 2014.
7 We train our staff to be aware of behaviour that may indicate gambling problems and to provide appropriate patron support. We require all ALH hotel managers to complete additional advanced responsible gaming training.
8 We partner with expert groups and specialists who can help staff and patrons deal with problem gambling, including Gambler's Help (Australia's leading professional counselling service) and the Salvation Army.
9 We ensure that ATM machines, where approved, are provided for the convenience of all patrons in a safe, central location and not in gaming areas.
10 We support local communities in numerous ways, including working with charities to raise money through our hotels.
11 We conduct internal and external audits to ensure we deliver on our commitment to be Australia's most responsible operator of hotels.

Woolworths Push For Yet More Pokies!

Woolworths and their Licensed Hotel interests are systematically sucking the life out of Australia one community at a time through their 13,500+ pokie machines scattered across 328 Hotels and Licensed Venues. Now however it seems they’ve stepped up their campaigns and are attacking communities from multiple (hotel) fronts.

When $50 Million Is Not Enough

Woolworths and the ALH Group already take $50 million from the residents of Whittlesea each and every year… but in the typical greedy manner in which corporations act, they are now pushing for another 40 pokies at yet another South Morang Pub.

A few days ago our friends over at RSLPokies.com revealed how the Woolworths group are planning on targeting children in their pubs and shared some frightening revelations about the groups plans moving forward (Let’s just say that are NOT in the best interest of the country or individuals!) Well it seems our good friends overs at Woolworths the Fuck You Australia People are at it again, this time however they’ve decided to go and pick on an old friend again…

Woolworths Vs. Whittlesea

Woolworths want more pokies in whittlesea - which already suffers — Krishna Batmesswaran, Nessie Sayar and Olivia Naidoo support the Whittlesea Interagency Taskforce on Gambling's campaign to stop plans for 40 pokie machines to be installed at the Commercial Hotel.

Woolworths & The Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group (ALHG) –
“Let’s Install another 40 Pokies into South Morang and then Whittle’ See how bad we fuck the community”

The Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) –
“Haha sure thing, we LOVE approving requests for more pokies, in fact we approve over 94% of applications!”

Common Sense, Reasoning and The Good People of Whittlesea –
Woolworths venues already take over $50 million in pokies losses from Whittlesea, they don't need more. This is money which will leave our neighbourhood and won't come back.

Woolworths Monopoly?

The ALHG owns 305 machines across 3 licensed hotels in the Whittlesea area, including Mill Park's Plough Hotel, the Bundoora Hotel, and the Excelsior Hotel in Thomastown.

These same 3 Hotels accounted for almost half of the $111 million lost by gamblers at the city of Whittlesea's 10 pokies venues in the 2015/16 financial year.

$275,000 Lost Every Day in Whittlesea!

Whittlesea Mayor Stevan Kozmevski said the municipality already had 691 machines which claimed $275,000 each day.

Poker machines have a terrible impact on our community and there are very clear links between poker machine losses and social problems including increased crime and family breakdown, Cr Kozmevski said.

These losses are not surprising as the poker machines are programmed to con €” every push of a poker machine (button) is fixed so that users lose money.

Commercial Hotel manager Natalee Melaney or ALHG representatives could not be reached for comment.

The Same (sad) Old Story

This is not the first time Whittlesea residents have had to stand up against the Hotels and the VCGLR, as these two articles clearly show:

2013 – Posters likening gambling to smoking are popping up across Melbourne's north as part of a new Whittlesea Interagency Taskforce on Gambling – See Article in Star Weekly
Whittlesea council has refused to issue a permit for another 20 poker machines for the Bridge Inn in Mernda. – See Article in Star Weekly
See original source article and followup resources by visiting this article on the HeraldSun.com.au

Woolworths: Hating on Australian Families Since… Pokies.

Anti-poker machine campaigners have slammed supermarket giant Woolworths for introducing a frequent gambling rewards card for poker machines in its string of pokie pubs.

Woolworths’ move is in direct response to government calls for harm minimisation measures to prevent problem gambling – but in typical corporate greed fashion, Woolworths have turned it around to serve their own best interests, effectively mocking the growing problems associated with pokie addiction and reaffirming their position as Anti-Family and pokie friendly

Fly Buys Card For Pokies?!

In December, the ALH Group, which is 96 per cent owned by Woolworths, will roll out the Monty’s Reward card in Victoria and Queensland as its “voluntary pre-commitment” measure, after it was piloted in New South Wales.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon branded Woolworths’ decision as cynical.

“What was meant to be a harm minimisation measure has been turned by Woolworths into a harm-exacerbation measure by using this card,” he said. “This isn’t so much a loyalty card as an addiction card.”

This comes off the back of whatever Woolworths and the ALH Group have just done – because I am sure it’s not good. The Fresh Food people are slowly being known as the Pokies people, and if their penchant for pokies profits continues to come at the expense of the people then maybe it’s time we all paid a visit to our local Coles 😉

Woolworths Pre-Commitment Fly-Buys Card Summary

If the following summary of what the ALH group is doing and where its priorities lie as we move toward 2017 doesn’t say everything you need to know about these people then you’re blinder than Stevie Wonder!

Woolworths to roll out reward card as its “voluntary pre-commitment” measure
But anti-pokies campaigners say it is “essentially Fly Buys for gambling”
Woolworths plans to target children as a way to drive sales in its pokie pubs

Anti-pokies campaigner Paul Bendat agreed the card is “essentially a Fly Buys for gambling”. “You sign up for a card, you give them a bunch of your personal details and every time you gamble on one of their poker machines, you insert the card,” Mr Bendat said.

Pre-Commitment Shhermitment

“[Voluntary pre-commitment] is the cornerstone of the harm-minimisation policy of the current Victorian Government, ALP, and the past Coalition.
“[This card] is entirely counterproductive. There is no morality in it.”

Buried at the end of the card’s brochure is a paragraph on voluntary pre-commitment – which means the gambler has the option to limit their spending – however, the pre-commitment only lasts for 24 hours.

The Victorian Government has announced it will roll out general pre-commitment technology in December.

But the Victorian Government is Just as Corrupt as The VGCLR, the gambling industry itself and the Federal Govt. that oversees it all.

Australian Gambling statistics — Woolies and the ALH don’t care what your odds are – Just keep playing OK

Both Woolworths and the Victorian Gaming Minister, Jane Garrett, argue that the card is more appealing to punters because it is more “discreet” and had less “stigma” than a stand-alone pre-commitment card. Ms Garrett (who is clearly an idiot and blinded by the corruption of pokie revenue like the rest of our government) made the following (totally moronic and contradictory) statement:

“People like loyalty programs. They like them at their coffee shops, they like them on their plane trips, they like them at their local restaurants – of themselves, loyalty programs are not bad,”

Contradictory Much?!

When asked whether encouraging people to gamble more through a rewards card and harm minimisation in poker machines were completely contradictory, Ms Garrett said loyalty programs had “different roles for different people”.
“I’m not tarnishing all of those people who work in this industry and all of the people who enjoy going out to venues and taking their kids out to dinner,” she said.

Senator Xenophon was astonished the Victorian Government had supported such a scheme.

“This is effectively a Trojan horse for more addiction. And the Victorian Government is busy dragging the horse through the gates,” Senator Xenophon said.

There are 328 Woolies-owned pubs across Australia, and of the 73 in Melbourne all but one have poker machines.

WoolWorths – Anti-Family & Pro-Pokies

The move comes as Woolworths, a company which has always marketed itself as proudly family-friendly, has announced to the stock market that it plans to target children as a way to drive sales in its pokie pubs. Wait! What?! Dafuq??!

Buried in the analyst’s report in Woolworths’ company results, released on August 28, is a commitment in its ALH Group section to “promotional offers like kids eat free to drive food sales”.

A visit to those pubs reveals “Kids Clubs”, “kids eat free nights” and children’s entertainment advertised on billboards and online.

The pubs also offer playgrounds for children…. Like THIS ONE AT LANGWARRIN HOTEL – Where owner Peter Beretta agreed to build a brand new childrens playground in exchange for 10 new pokie machines.

Pokies and Children – No Woolworths, Just No.

While Woolworths has previously committed to separating the children’s playgrounds and dining rooms from the pokie floors, 7.30 discovered that they were actually right next to each other in some pubs.

Partially-opaque glass walls did not hide the poker machines and their flashing lights from view from the play equipment and dining rooms.

“This is an immersive experience for young children that normalises gambling,” Mr Bendat said.
“And there’s nothing more powerful than seeing your parents gamble, seeing the grandpas and grandmas that they may observe in the poker machine room.”

Allison Keogh grew up with a mother who started having the odd flutter on the pokies at her local club, but became a full-time problem gambler.

“[Marketing to children in pokie venues] really turns my stomach, because everything to me points to the fact that they are actually the opposite of family friendly – they are separators of family,” Ms Keogh said.

Ms Keogh spent hours nearly every night of the week in the kids’ room at her local club in NSW.

“I still refer to that environment or that room as ‘the jail with pink walls’ – that’s what we called it, that’s what it felt like,” she said.

“Things like homework, dinner time conversation, things like that just didn’t happen.
I do remember a time when my father walked into the kids’ room and found us asleep on the floor and as he picked me up, I woke up, and he muttered ‘this is no life for a kid’.”

…Cause Woolworths sure as shit aren’t going to!

ALH and Woolworths had this to say:

In a statement to 7.30, ALH said the customers with a Monty’s card “can access and use pre-commitment functionality with or without participating in the venue loyalty system”.
“In this way, customers can access pre-commitment functionality discreetly and without any negative stigma.
“ALH are proud to operate family friendly hotels. We restrict gaming room access to adults and ensure gaming rooms are screened or separated from other areas of the hotel.
“The pre-commitment functionality assists our customers to gamble responsibly by nominating spend and, or time limits on electronic gaming machines.
“Pre-commitment settings can be set at the hotel or via the internet. Voluntary pre-commitment and responsible gambling dynamic messaging will also appear on screen.”

Ms Garrett said her Government had introduced strict ministerial guidelines for new venues about separation of pokie floors and playgrounds and were auditing existing venues.

She agreed that some of the descriptions of the Woolworths pubs breached those guidelines.

Our Thoughts…

Here at OnlinePokies Australia we think that the description of Woolworths in general has breached the guidelines of honesty and ethics – and as such it is with great pleasure that I introduce a name more synonymous with the actions and deeds of Woolworths Limited…. Oh and for the record, no I did not make this – but the fact I searched for Woolies Pokie People and got thousands of awesome banners and title images to use within moments speaks volumes for how their reputation precedes them.