Members of a Brisbane community are outraged after the Queensland Government’s Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation approved pokies to be installed at a family friendly pub in one of the city’s busiest shopping centres.
The Pig n Whistle pub at Indooroopilly Shopping Centre will soon see 45 poker machines introduced following the approval. The pub in question is situated in the centre’s food court and is close to shops and cinemas, as well as a nearby church and public transport hub – all accessible to people under the age of 18.
The move has prompted questions over how much influence the gaming industry has on Australia, which has more pokies machine per person than any other country in the world, excluding casino-tourism destinations. Macau and Monaco. As of 2017, there were about 200,000 pokies machines across the country – that’s one machine per 114 people.
State Greens MP for Maiwar Michael Berkman said a volunteer-run community survey found 80 per cent of respondents opposed the pokies, while 4 per cent supported them. In addition, just 30 per cent of people in the community had heard about the application.
“This location is so grossly inappropriate that the regulator rejected an almost identical application back in 1998,” Berkman said. “The regulator had that evidence in front of him, and he still approved the application.”
Berkman claimed the “rules are rigged” against local communities and said there is no requirement for the regulator to notify anyone about the decision – except for the applicant. He added that there was no way for the local community to appeal through the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
A spokesperson for Berkman told Starts at 60 the Greens member would be holding a community meeting in late November and calling on the pub owner and the shopping centre management at Indooroopilly to make sure the pokies aren’t installed.
The Office of Liquor and Gambling Regulation said all applications for gaming machine licences are determined by the Commissioner for Liquor and Gaming and that the application was advertised for community comment in accordance with the requirements of the Gaming Machine Act 1991.
“In determining to approve this particular application, the Commissioner for Liquor and Gaming carefully considered the information provided by the applicant, all community submissions received and the investigation undertaken in accordance with the requirements of the Gaming Machine Act 1991,” a department spokesperson told Starts at 60.
“The Commissioner considered that, on balance, the installation of 45 gaming machines at the premises is not likely to adversely affect the nature or character of the licensed premises, the general use of the premises or the enjoyment of persons using the premises, or the public interest.”
The spokesperson added there is a state-wide cap on the number of gaming machines for hotels and taverns in Queensland and that any licensee wishing to install and operate gaming machines needs to first purchase an operating authority for each machine through a tender process conducted by the Public Trustee.
Still, Berkman said he was holding an urgent strategy meeting to discuss the next steps of the decision and through a Facebook event and encouraged locals to protest the pokies.
“We know the local community does not want 45 new pokies in their shopping centre, next to their church, their GP clinic, childcare centres, schools or bus interchange,” he said. “These pokies would benefit no one but the super wealthy, while pokies continue to take billions of dollars from Queenslanders every year.”
Starts at 60 contacted Pig n Whistle Indooroopilly Mantle Group (owner of Pig n Whistle) but did not receive comment before publication.