Latest news with #HurlstoneParkHotel
Sydney Morning Herald
8 hours ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Gareth's podcast experiment helped change lives, but his success will be short-lived
It is part of a scheme that requires pubs and clubs to direct a portion of their profits to a central fund when they are approved to increase their gaming machines, to offset the potential harms that might be generated when more pokies are introduced into the neighbourhood. CECAL has received $707,985 over five years. However, while the poker machines remain in perpetuity, the funding is finite. Wyatt was officially informed last week that the government will not renew CECAL's funding when it expires next year – a decision that he says will mean hundreds of clients lose access to gambling counselling and early intervention services. 'I wish I had better words to describe how gut-wrenching this decision is,' Wyatt said. 'I am not wanting to sound anti-gambling, however there are many who gamble beyond their needs and cannot control their addiction. The social costs I see are devastating. 'It's getting worse every year.' Poker machine players lost $717 million at venues in Canterbury Bankstown in 2023-24, more than any other local government area in NSW, according to the auditor-general's report. Wyatt has seen gambling show up as a factor in homelessness and putting more pressure on social housing, schools and hospitals. Increasingly, it is a factor in domestic violence cases. The Bankstown Women's Health Centre, which also received a grant when the Hurlstone Park Hotel was approved for more machines, will also lose funding next year. The caseworker whose salary was paid by the funding has already left for a job with greater security. 'Our funding was to address domestic violence in general, keeping in mind that gambling is a major contributor to domestic violence,' chief executive Mariam Mourad said. '[The caseworker] was always so busy.' Hurlstone Park Hotel is part of a multibillion dollar hospitality empire built by Sam Arnaout, whose company Iris Capital has casinos in the ACT and Northern Territory and three of the 20 most profitable hotels in NSW by gaming revenue in its portfolio. The harm offset scheme, known as the Community Benefit Payment Scheme, was set up in 2018 after the embarrassing exposure of donations to community groups by hotels seeking to increase their poker machine entitlements, sometimes in exchange for letters of support. A year earlier, the anti-domestic violence advocacy group White Ribbon backtracked on accepting a $50,000 donation from the Fairfield Hotel that had been contingent on the pub being allowed to increase its pokies. The chief executive of White Ribbon announced her retirement a month later. Loading The Community Benefit Payment Scheme formalised such payments and required an independent committee to select the recipients, which was intended to give community groups greater freedom to support or oppose an increase in pokies at their local venues without being conflicted by the opportunity to gain funding. A spokesman for Liquor and Gaming NSW said the payments were administered in accordance with the administration guidelines for ad hoc grants, and the beneficiaries were published online. But Wesley Mission chief executive Stu Cameron said the scheme was fundamentally flawed as there was no public tender process, little transparency and no effective evaluation of outcomes. 'This model ties important, and often desperately needed, community support to gambling harm,' Cameron said. 'We should be finding ways to reduce, not entrench, dependence on an industry that's contributing to a public health crisis across NSW.' Labor came to government promising to reduce the number of poker machines in NSW, but while the number of entitlements has decreased by 3000, the number of machines in operation has increased by around 1000 due to venues electing to use their entitlements. Gaming Minister David Harris told the Herald last month that it would take time to change the gambling landscape in NSW without many people losing their jobs, and pointed to the 2024 NSW Gambling Survey, which found just under 1 per cent of the population was experiencing high-risk gambling harm. The survey also reported that around one-fifth of respondents said they had experienced some form of gambling harm, including as a result of someone else's gambling. Wyatt believes the prevalence is 'grossly underestimated'. He had tried advertising for gambling referrals on flyers and in newspapers before he sponsored SC Playbook, and the response rate was poor. 'I knew it was an issue out there, but it's hard to get people to put their hand up and admit they have a problem. 'You can't just walk up to someone at a poker machine and say, 'I've seen you at a poker machine every day this week, are you OK?'' SC Playbook host Tim Williams remains conversational and relatable to his audience of fantasy football aficionados when he plugs CECAL's counselling services. One typical promotion began: 'If you're doing it tough on the punt and every time I mention CECAL gambling and getting a bit of help with your punting you get a few little butterflies – and not the good kind of butterflies, like the ones that go, 'Shit he could be talking about me here' – don't ignore it. It's probably … a sign that you might be losing control with your punting a little bit. Absolutely nothing wrong with that guys, you're there with thousands of other Australians who are in the same boat, but it is important you do something about it…' Loading Williams said his relationship with CECAL was 'a match made in heaven'. 'I was able to speak from experience as someone who does like a punt, fortunately enough to be in control of it, but I've had mates who have gone down a darker path,' he said. A St George Illawarra Dragons supporter who recently called into the show said he had fallen into a habit of pulling into pubs on his way home and gambling away his money when he heard the promotion for CECAL on his headphones at work. 'I just started to think about it a bit and I thought, 'I've got to get control',' he said. He wrote a message to Wyatt and then sat on it for a few days, before deciding that Wyatt's fondness for footy made him a like-minded soul, even if he backed the wrong team. 'I started seeing Gareth about a year ago now and since that time I don't think I've had any blow-ups with the missus. You can get caught up in the lying of trying to hide your gambling and once you come clean and you're free from all that, you realise how much of a strain it had on you.' Wyatt is yet to tell his clients whether CECAL will be able to continue to help them after next year. Last year, he met with Gaming Minister David Harris to lobby for more gambling counselling services. 'Our funding is a mere drop in the ocean compared to what the government is taking in through gambling revenue,' he said. 'If governments are going to take truckloads of money out of communities, then surely there is a moral responsibility to have some services to provide help for some who want it.'
The Age
8 hours ago
- Business
- The Age
Gareth's podcast experiment helped change lives, but his success will be short-lived
It is part of a scheme that requires pubs and clubs to direct a portion of their profits to a central fund when they are approved to increase their gaming machines, to offset the potential harms that might be generated when more pokies are introduced into the neighbourhood. CECAL has received $707,985 over five years. However, while the poker machines remain in perpetuity, the funding is finite. Wyatt was officially informed last week that the government will not renew CECAL's funding when it expires next year – a decision that he says will mean hundreds of clients lose access to gambling counselling and early intervention services. 'I wish I had better words to describe how gut-wrenching this decision is,' Wyatt said. 'I am not wanting to sound anti-gambling, however there are many who gamble beyond their needs and cannot control their addiction. The social costs I see are devastating. 'It's getting worse every year.' Poker machine players lost $717 million at venues in Canterbury Bankstown in 2023-24, more than any other local government area in NSW, according to the auditor-general's report. Wyatt has seen gambling show up as a factor in homelessness and putting more pressure on social housing, schools and hospitals. Increasingly, it is a factor in domestic violence cases. The Bankstown Women's Health Centre, which also received a grant when the Hurlstone Park Hotel was approved for more machines, will also lose funding next year. The caseworker whose salary was paid by the funding has already left for a job with greater security. 'Our funding was to address domestic violence in general, keeping in mind that gambling is a major contributor to domestic violence,' chief executive Mariam Mourad said. '[The caseworker] was always so busy.' Hurlstone Park Hotel is part of a multibillion dollar hospitality empire built by Sam Arnaout, whose company Iris Capital has casinos in the ACT and Northern Territory and three of the 20 most profitable hotels in NSW by gaming revenue in its portfolio. The harm offset scheme, known as the Community Benefit Payment Scheme, was set up in 2018 after the embarrassing exposure of donations to community groups by hotels seeking to increase their poker machine entitlements, sometimes in exchange for letters of support. A year earlier, the anti-domestic violence advocacy group White Ribbon backtracked on accepting a $50,000 donation from the Fairfield Hotel that had been contingent on the pub being allowed to increase its pokies. The chief executive of White Ribbon announced her retirement a month later. Loading The Community Benefit Payment Scheme formalised such payments and required an independent committee to select the recipients, which was intended to give community groups greater freedom to support or oppose an increase in pokies at their local venues without being conflicted by the opportunity to gain funding. A spokesman for Liquor and Gaming NSW said the payments were administered in accordance with the administration guidelines for ad hoc grants, and the beneficiaries were published online. But Wesley Mission chief executive Stu Cameron said the scheme was fundamentally flawed as there was no public tender process, little transparency and no effective evaluation of outcomes. 'This model ties important, and often desperately needed, community support to gambling harm,' Cameron said. 'We should be finding ways to reduce, not entrench, dependence on an industry that's contributing to a public health crisis across NSW.' Labor came to government promising to reduce the number of poker machines in NSW, but while the number of entitlements has decreased by 3000, the number of machines in operation has increased by around 1000 due to venues electing to use their entitlements. Gaming Minister David Harris told the Herald last month that it would take time to change the gambling landscape in NSW without many people losing their jobs, and pointed to the 2024 NSW Gambling Survey, which found just under 1 per cent of the population was experiencing high-risk gambling harm. The survey also reported that around one-fifth of respondents said they had experienced some form of gambling harm, including as a result of someone else's gambling. Wyatt believes the prevalence is 'grossly underestimated'. He had tried advertising for gambling referrals on flyers and in newspapers before he sponsored SC Playbook, and the response rate was poor. 'I knew it was an issue out there, but it's hard to get people to put their hand up and admit they have a problem. 'You can't just walk up to someone at a poker machine and say, 'I've seen you at a poker machine every day this week, are you OK?'' SC Playbook host Tim Williams remains conversational and relatable to his audience of fantasy football aficionados when he plugs CECAL's counselling services. One typical promotion began: 'If you're doing it tough on the punt and every time I mention CECAL gambling and getting a bit of help with your punting you get a few little butterflies – and not the good kind of butterflies, like the ones that go, 'Shit he could be talking about me here' – don't ignore it. It's probably … a sign that you might be losing control with your punting a little bit. Absolutely nothing wrong with that guys, you're there with thousands of other Australians who are in the same boat, but it is important you do something about it…' Loading Williams said his relationship with CECAL was 'a match made in heaven'. 'I was able to speak from experience as someone who does like a punt, fortunately enough to be in control of it, but I've had mates who have gone down a darker path,' he said. A St George Illawarra Dragons supporter who recently called into the show said he had fallen into a habit of pulling into pubs on his way home and gambling away his money when he heard the promotion for CECAL on his headphones at work. 'I just started to think about it a bit and I thought, 'I've got to get control',' he said. He wrote a message to Wyatt and then sat on it for a few days, before deciding that Wyatt's fondness for footy made him a like-minded soul, even if he backed the wrong team. 'I started seeing Gareth about a year ago now and since that time I don't think I've had any blow-ups with the missus. You can get caught up in the lying of trying to hide your gambling and once you come clean and you're free from all that, you realise how much of a strain it had on you.' Wyatt is yet to tell his clients whether CECAL will be able to continue to help them after next year. Last year, he met with Gaming Minister David Harris to lobby for more gambling counselling services. 'Our funding is a mere drop in the ocean compared to what the government is taking in through gambling revenue,' he said. 'If governments are going to take truckloads of money out of communities, then surely there is a moral responsibility to have some services to provide help for some who want it.'
