Pockets 8 Ball Club s Submission on The Gambling (Gambling Harm Reduction) Amendment Bill 2010

Transcription

1 Pockets 8 Ball Club s Submission on The Gambling (Gambling Harm Reduction) Amendment Bill 2010 Pockets 8 Ball Club Incorporated 38 Bridge Street Tokoroa Wendy Cook General Manager Ph: Fax: Mob: wendy@pockets.co.nz

2 Pockets 8 Ball Club s Submission on The Gambling (Gambling Harm Reduction) Amendment Bill 2010 Pockets 8 Ball Club would like to speak to our submission. The club s contact person is Wendy Cook, , wendy@pockets.co.nz. Background Pockets 8 Ball Club is an incorporated society which aims to promote cue sports (8 Ball, Snooker, and 9 Ball) within New Zealand. Pockets has approximately 3515 financial members, which compete in cue sports at regional, national and international levels. Pockets has 6 class 4 venues located in Waitakere (9 Machines), Franklin (18 Machines), North Shore (18 Machines), South Waikato (2 venues, 16 &18 Machines), and Rotorua (18 Machines). Executive Summary Pockets 8 Ball Club: Opposes any 80% local rule applying to clubs. The club currently operates via a head office based in Tokoroa. The use of a centralised head office is the most efficient and cost effective way to administer the clubrooms located in Tokoroa, Rotorua, Pukekohe and Glen Eden. Opposes any change that would result in the club s gaming machine proceedings being distributed by council committees. There is no need to change the current club model where clubs apply the funds generated themselves for the benefit of their members. Opposes the expansion of territorial authorities power beyond the current ability to impose sinking lid policies. The Club has hosted gaming machines responsibly for 13 years. Opposes the introduction of player tracking systems and pre-commit cards. The cost to upgrade the club s machines to include player tracking systems and pre-commit cards could easily exceed $1,000, There does not appear to be any evidence to suggest that these systems would be cost effective. The Importance of the Club as a Community Asset The Gambling (Gambling Harm Reduction) Amendment Bill 2010 ( the Bill ) as currently worded has the potential to bring about the closure of Pockets 8 Ball Club. This will adversely affect our members, a large percentage of whom are Maori and Pacific Island people. The club provides a valued community facility for its 3515 members and provides employment for 59 staff. Without the benefit of the Club s gaming revenue, the Club would have to reduce the services it provides to its members considerably, and may even be forced to close. The Club has asked some of its members to record in their own words how they feel about the Club and the Club environment. The following is a small sample of some of the comments made by the members in their letters:

3 Letter from Neil A Sinclair, Mayor, South Waikato District Council: Our town would be the poorer without Pockets and I fully endorse the Club and its aims. Letter from Glenis & Graham Shailer: We, Glenis & Graham Shailer, wish to endorse Pockets as an awesome club to be a member of. We became members approximately 5yrs ago and have always considered Pockets a wonderful place to socialize and to meet with friends and family. Our family have a darts team which competes each week at the Tokoroa Cosmopolitan Club and is supported by Pocket Shotz. Our team name is Shakey Shotz. Letter from Metua Matangi jnr: My name is Metua Matangi and I am 24 years of age and this is why pockets 8ball club is a great place to go to. The club is a friendly place to hang out and mingle with other locals and friends because I feel like part of the furniture, that s why go there at lease 3 days a week! Seriously. The club provides a safe and warm environment for everyone and the staff is friendly. I take part in activities that the club provides and sponsors. I am a competitive dart player locally, chartered and nationwide, where I won the under 24 New Zealand Dart Championship and the North Island Ladies pair Championship in Letter from Kelly Adair: After going to a few different places I ended up joining Pocket s. I chose pockets Club as I found the staff and members the most welcoming. I have met a huge variety of people from all walks of life. I go to the Club at least twice a week, and have become part of the Club s inter club team for Pool. The club also gave me the opportunity of assisting with running some of the week night Pool competitions, something I had never done before. Pocket s provides a wide variety of options; Pool, darts, Poker etc. I thoroughly enjoy the social environment of Pockets and the Club s support giving me the courage to Play Pool in the North Island and Nation Woman s competitions held this winter. Pockets and its club members support each other and the locally community. As a member I not only get to play pool, have fund, meet new people and have some firm friends, I also get to assist with fundraising for local events, like the Hospice charity event. Letter from Malvina Mckenzie: I have been a member of the Pockets 8 Ball club for more than 3 years. I enjoy the diversity of cultures and activities Pockets has to offer and I regularly participate in various club activities. I recommend this club to family and friends regularly and a lot of them enjoy patronizing the club as I do.

4 Letter from Chris Morgan: I find the social atmosphere at Pockets most enjoyable as they offer a wide range of activities such as Darts, Cards, Sports Tipping, Touch Rugby, 8 Ball. I find the people that also are Members due to the low membership fees are friendly and socialable with many different cultures and everybody knows everybody something you won t find at other Clubs in Town. Pockets contribution to the Town is unbelievable and this shows on most nights with over 60 people attending Pool & Darts & Cards when other Clubs are struggling to get numbers. Letter from Tokoroa Youth Boxing Club: Pockets Pool Lounge is used by members, parents, committee members, licenced trainers and boxers to socialise, play darts and pool. Several are also members of Pockets Outdoor Bowls team. The well run venue has been important for post tournament socialisation for boxing visitors from throughout the North Island. Letter from Huia Rore: Being a part of the Pockets 8 Ball Club makes me very happy. It s a place where I like to come and enjoy pool. Not only is it a fun and enjoyable place it makes me a better person. It teaches me how to interact with other people because I am a very shy person. The people and the environment here are great. It s like a place you can call home. Letter from Wendy Cook (written with the consent and blessing of Moihi s family) I am sitting in the lounge with Moihi, a young man only 17 years old who is lying in state as he was killed in a car accident night before last. I am surrounded by many other young members of our club, we are huddled together in the small lounge of Moihi s home. As I sit there with tears streaming down my face looking at all the other young people in the room I m thinking Life is just too precious We sit and share treasured memories with the grieving family. We all talk about Moihi and his love for the game and our tournaments in town but also our trips out of town to represent Tokoroa and these trips are so treasured by all of us! Then Moihi s mum stands up to address all the Pockets team on behalf of Moihi and her family. It s un real - but she starts by thanking me for coming to her house and organizing all these young ones to come together as a Pockets team to pay our respects today, she is overwhelmed. Then the real story starts: Mum (Darnielle), step Dad (Ernie), Moihi and younger sister all moved to Tokoroa about eight years ago. With this move Moihi was a troubled angry young man to the point Mum didn t know how she was going to deal with the behavioral problems her ten year old son was having, was anxious and not liking the direction his life was taking. This was naturally creating problems at home for the whole family. Then Darnelle said one day their family life as they knew it changed, definitely for the better.

5 This was the day Moihi walked into Pockets Q Masters. This was the place that was the savior for Moihi. For the first time in a long time Moihi came home happy and told his family how he loved this place for young ones to hang out and play pool. I m going to play, practice hard and get real good so I can play in tournaments too! By the age of 17 Moihi had played and won many tournaments, our young champion taken too soon. His family is forever grateful that we gave their troubled son a place to be and something to strive for and a focus in life. The family knew Moihi was safe and keeping out of trouble when he was at Q-Masters. I sit there with tears in my eyes, hardly able to speak. I am truly moved and humbled to think I am sitting here with a grieving Mum and all she can do is thank me for what Pockets has done for Moihi and our community and for who we are (Pockets). Then she asks can we have a service for Moihi at Pockets Q-Masters as this place was his life and his second home. My reply Absolutely, we would be honored to have a service for Moihi in the Club and you are so very welcome! My thoughts We must be doing something right, saving one child from self destruction makes my job so worthwhile. I hold my head up high and I know there are many families who feel this way. I m very proud of and glad for what Pockets has created and what we do! Wendy Cook Founding committee member / General Manager External Recognition of the Club and its Members Over many years the Club and its members have been recognised and acknowledged by external organisations. In both 2002 and 2004 the Club won Club of the Year at the Sports Awards. In Sport Waikato s letter, Heather Rydon, the District Coordinator for South Waikato stated: Pockets 8 Ball Club in Tokoroa has offered a top quality facility in the Tokoroa community for close to ten years. Offering affordable membership, community initiatives, free coaching, role models and promoting community and individual pride, the club is held in high regard within our community. A keen supporter of our district sports awards, Pockets 8 Ball Club has made nominations to the awards for a number of years, achieving winners in the team category in 2003, 2004 and 2006 and in the category of Sports Club of the Year in 2002 and The club works extremely hard to support a good image within the community for both the club and its members. 80% Local Rule and Clubs There is no need for any rule around grant distributions to apply to clubs. Most clubs spend over 90% their net proceeds on the operational and maintenance cost of their clubrooms. Pockets 8 Ball Club spends over 95% of its net proceeds on matters that directly benefit its members. The Club also makes a small amount of external grants.

6 The Club has members located in Tokoroa, Rotorua, Pukekohe and Glen Eden. The Club has 7 head office staff based in Tokoroa. The Tokoroa head office provides administration support for all the clubrooms. The Club therefore spends money generated in other areas in running its Tokoroa head office. If the Club was not able to continue with this model it would be required to establish sub-offices at each of the various clubrooms. It is a lot more efficient to have general administration services provided out of one central location. Diagram Showing Tokoroa Based Head Office Support Pockets Rotorua Clubrooms Hinemoa Street Rotorua Pockets Glen Eden Clubrooms 200 West Coast Road Glen Eden Pockets Pukekohe Clubrooms Cnr Edinburgh and Massey St Pukekohe Pockets Head Office 38 Bridge Street Tokoroa 7 Staff Services: Management Payroll Website administration Tournament administration Player ranking administration Accounts payable Accounts receivable Purchasing Accountancy Building maintenance Health and Safety Harm minimisation training Gaming compliance and record keeping Banking and finance Newsletter Membership administration Pockets Pool Lounge 42 Mannering Street Tokoroa Q-Masters Bridge Street Tokoroa Pockets and Pockets Central Café Bridge Street Tokoroa

7 Transfer of the Grant Distribution Role to Council Committees The intention of the Bill is to remove the grant distribution role away from gaming societies that make external grants, i.e. gaming societies like New Zealand Community Trust, Lion Foundation, Pub Charity and Southern Trust. It is unclear whether this amendment extends to clubs. There is no need to change the club model. Clubs do not distribute their gaming machine proceeds to the general community. Clubs mainly apply funds, i.e. mainly spend the funds direct rather than make grants to third parties. The Bill proposes to amend section 53 to include: (ca) a condition that at least 80% of all funds derived from gambling under the licence must be distributed for purposes that are located in the same territorial authority district or, where such electoral subdivisions exist, in the smallest of the local council ward, local board subdivision, or community board area; and The above provision would require all clubs to pay out to external grant recipients 80% of the funds generated at the club. Such a provision would result in the closure of the Club. It is submitted that any amendment to section 53 should not include a requirement on clubs to distribute to third parties 80% of their net proceeds. The amendment could be corrected as follows: (ca) a condition on societies that mainly distribute net proceeds that at least 80% of all funds derived from gambling under the licence musttheir net proceeds be distributed for purposes that are located in the same territorial authority district or, where such electoral subdivisions exist, in the smallest of the local council ward, local board subdivision, or community board area; and Enabling Territorial Authorities to Remove Gaming From Existing Venues The Bill proposes to expand territorial authorities powers to enable them to remove gaming from venues that have operated gaming machines responsibly for decades. It would be unfair and inappropriate to remove gaming from the Club s venues. The Club is a very responsible gaming machine operator. The Club has high harm minimisation standards. As detailed above, the Club is a significant community asset. Territorial authorities are currently able to adopt policies to reduce gaming machine numbers. Numerous territorial authorities have already adopted sinking lid policies including Tokoroa, Rotorua and Waitakere City. A sinking lid policy enables venue and machine numbers to reduce in a fair way, i.e. via natural attrition. Expanding territorial authorities powers further unfairly impacts on property rights and creates uncertainty. Player Tracking Systems and Pre-commit Cards It is submitted that any step to introduce player tracking systems and pre-commit cards is too premature. What is known is that the cost of introducing such devices would be considerable (up to $1,000, alone for Pockets 8 Ball Club). There does not however appear to be any evidence to suggest that such systems are a cost effective harm minimisation tool. Unless some form of biometric identification is used, a player tracking and pre-commit system will be easily circumvented by problem gamblers swapping and trading tracking cards.

8 Conversely, the one off casual recreational player who has no risk of being a problem gambler will be deterred from popping $20 in a machine, due to the intensive sign up process that would be required. This deterrent to recreational gamblers will be real, and have a significant impact on overall turnover and thus the valuable funding the Club receives via its machines. The Committee Pockets 8 Ball Club Inc