Pokies king cleans up Bonanza for Mathieson, Woolies

Provisional figures released yesterday also confirmed that Melbourne-based AFL clubs could be set for a multimillion-dollar pokies bonanza after securing dozens and in some cases hundreds of machines at bargain prices.

The biggest winner was Carlton. After being handed control of three new venues by Mr Mathieson, who is a former Blues director, the club managed to secure its 260 machine licences for $5500 each way below the $30,000-plus average prices paid across the state.

The Woolworths and Mathieson venture spent more than $24 million to pick up 4692 machines at an average price of $38,908. This will give it control of more than 34 per cent of all pub poker machines in Victoria. The next biggest has just 4.8 per cent of the pub poker machines.

The figures could revive claims that the government gave away licences too cheaply. Some machines operated by the Woolworths-Mathieson venture rake in $190,000 a year in pre-tax profit more than four times the average price the group paid for its licences.

The figures also prompted criticism of the supermarket giant by anti-gambling campaigners, including Tim Costello. "Woolworths should be ashamed of themselves. The fresh food people are now the pokies people," he said. "I think Woolworths' shareholders, the mums and dads, knowing the damage that pokies do, would be raising an eyebrow about that."

Mr Mathieson and Woolworths declined to comment.

The auction, for entitlements to operate the state's 27,500 poker machines located outside of the casino for a decade after 2012, generated $981 million for the government.

The average price for pub-based machines was $39,600. The club average was $31,600.

Most AFL clubs got their machines at well below average prices. Carlton spent just $1.43 million for its 260 machines and Hawthorn scooped up 75 machines for a total of $412,500, or $5500 each. St Kilda also did well, paying just over $15,000 each for 83 machines. Collingwood paid a relatively high average price of $34,355 for each of its 191 machines, for a total $6.5 million.

Charles Livingstone, of Monash University's health social science department, said the auction results showed people were prepared to pay a premium to buy machines in disadvantaged areas, particularly those with a cap on the number of machines.

He said many operators would be raking in big profits from their entitlements. "If you look say at a machine that is making $200,000 and he is keeping half of that, which is about right, and he has paid $84,000 so he is going to be making it back in well under a year and then he has got nine-and-a-bit years to go of pretty much pure profit apart from a few operating expenses," he said.

The InterChurch Gambling Taskforce's Mark Zirnsak said the relatively low cost pubs and clubs paid gave the government a mandate to introduce new problem gambling measures.

"Because they got them cheaper, the government should be going in and protecting the community now. It now has the mandate to do that," he said.

The Woolworths-Mathieson venture paid some of their highest prices per machine of $84,250 in Maribyrnong.

Results from the auction also indicated that growth areas on Melbourne's fringes had been targeted for more machines.

Opposition gaming spokesman Michael O'Brien said the big poker machine operators did well in the auction. "The big footy clubs, the big hotel operators such Bruce Mathieson have paid far less for their pokies than have the small community bowls clubs and RSLs," he said.

Mr O'Brien said the community did not want poker machines paying the bills for AFL stars. "I don't think a lot of Victorians think that paying the salaries of star full forwards as being the sort of community benefit that they expect from the pokies," he said.