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This makes Woolworths Australia's largest owner of poker machines. Find it hard to believe? Here's a screenshot from the FAQ section of the Woolworths Limited website: In 2012, GetUp members chipped in to fund a report that estimated the total net gambling revenue generated by Woolies poker machines in 2010-11 at $1.29 billion.

WOOLWORTHS could strengthen its grip on the poker machine industry if it goes ahead with talks for a partnership with the state's gambling king, Arthur Laundy. If it proceeds with a joint venture with Mr Laundy the grocery giant will lift its poker machines from just more than 12,100 to 13,300 and it will increase its hotels from 286 nationwide. 88ProBet is the most trusted online casino in Singapore. We give you Woolworths Largest Poker Machine Operator promotions that are in your expectations and welcome you to play our variety of games. We offer the best odds in the industry and we give out real cash to our bettors everyday! Woolworths boss Brad Banducci has copied rivals Coles with a plan to park his hotel, drinks and poker machine operations in a new vehicle, which in theory will increase the value in both companies. 18+ Full T&C's Apply New players Only. £10 min deposit. £5 Woolworths Own Poker Machines max bet using bonus. 40 x wagering applies. Bonus valid Woolworths Own Poker Machines for 14 days. 30 Spins on preselected games will be credited instantly + then 30 per day for 9 days. Free Spins valid Woolworths Own Poker Machines for 72 hours from credit.

One of Australia’s largest supermarket brands is currently undergoing a major restructuring effort. The plans include the separation of alcohol and poker. The plan is currently being voted on by the company’s principal shareholders. If approved, the company will release its Endeavour Group, which contains the division responsible for poker machines, alcohol, hotels and nightclubs.

Woolworths has launched a new subsidiary of its enterprise that will be exclusively for leisure, hotels, nightclubs, poker and alcohol. ©Concord90/Pixabay

The idea is quite simple and will ensure that the Woolworths brand maintains its operational efficiency within the supermarket groceries business. For the many millions of Australians who have become accustomed to the Woolworths brand deep association with poker gambling, this move will be unexpected and will take some time to adjust.

This week will see the proceedings begin within the group of shareholders responsible for enacting the three-stage restructuring plan. The Woolworths corporation is for sure about to undergo fundamental changes at all levels of the organization. Initially, the poker operation within Woolworths will be transferred to the newly formed Endeavour Group. This newly formed spin-off entity will completely take control of the nightclubs, hotels, pubs, bars and poker machine venues – relinquishing the responsibility entirely from Woolworths. It is being widely analyzed in the Australian business commentary publications, with analysts billing this as the biggest re-structuring in the long history of Woolworths.

The initial forecasting by the entities currently serving as the majority shareholder in Woolworths suggests that the new satellite organization that will launch out of the ashes, Endeavour Group, is set to take control of the Australian drinks and hospitality business entirely. Economically, this is also huge, the newly formed Endeavour will control a market worth over AU$10 billion and expect to bring in revenues of over AU$1 billion. After the separation is complete, Woolworths will own an 85% share in Endeavour Group, making them firmly in control of the board and free to exercise any agenda they see fit for the new company.

Succumbing to External Pressure?

The announcement to differentiate the supermarket business from the gambling and alcohol serving divisions of the Woolworths business has not gone unnoticed by those that vehemently campaigned for this eventuality. The pressure to distance Woolworths from casual poker gambling has been growing from various groups including investors, anti-gambling charities and politicians for several years. But since the details of the split have been made public, it is obvious that the fiscal reasons are the primary motivation.

At the time the company announced its intentions to separate poker machines and alcohol drinking from the main Woolworths business enterprise, the news was welcomed by anti-gambling groups and investors. However, the CEO of Woolworths Brad Banducci does not seem to share this sentiment, in fact, he was downplaying the significance of this move by the firm, and commented.

The time to separate our supermarket and leisure divisions had been looming for some time. In order to achieve the necessary growth targets, it was essential to make this move, and we are pleased with the hard work and cooperation of all those who helped us achieve this.Brad Banducci, CEO Woolworths

With this dissociative language being flippantly put into the public domain by the Woolworths CEO, many critics are feeling disheartened. The reality is poker machine gambling will become significantly harder under the new corporate structure of Woolworths, and yet, advocates of gambling restrictions are unsatisfied. Time will tell how impactful this move will be. Removing alcohol and gambling elements from a business that primarily focuses of its retail supermarket vertical as the primary revenue stream is a logical step and one that will surely be paying dividends in the coming years.

The Future Divergence of Endeavour and Woolworths

Although these two organizations will be inherently different, with business operations in industries that hold completely opposite sets of challenges and obstacles, Woolworths as an entity will remain completely behind the driving wheel. By merging its leisure and hospitality segments into an external company, the firm can be allocated more abundantly the resources so desperately needed to fuel a supermarket chain currently occupying the position of market leader in Australia.

Endeavour will be a new venture – having already established a formidable reputation within the nightclubs, and hotels business, the natural succession that includes poker gaming and alcohol will slot neatly into the already burgeoning portfolio of business verticals. The main objective now will be to ensure that revenue targets are continuously being met, regulations and ethical guidelines are being kept up with, and the business continues to make investments into the development of its own staff.

But perhaps the greatest concern of stakeholders in the next years will be to improve the ethical standards that the company operates within. Under Woolworths, the newly formed Endeavour group will have to shake off the legacy of the concerning allegations filed against them in New South Wales of illegal and unethical behavior. The new company structure will serve as an adequate vehicle to re-establish the brand and gain back the trust of the customers they have squandered so often in the previous years.

Claims that Woolworths encourages its pub staff to spy on pokie players

An interview with a Woolworths whistleblower released by MP Andrew Wilkie.Source:Supplied

WOOLWORTHS has been accused of “spying” on poker machine players at hotel venues and keeping a secret database of their personal information to assist staff in encouraging increased gambling.

Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie has released screenshots of internal Google Drive documents, viewable to staff across Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group’s 400 venues — which collectively run more than 12,000 pokies — along with an interview with an ALH whistleblower.

On one shared document titled “Gaming Daily Briefing Sheet”, bold letters read, “We have a massive weekly target to beat last year. We need to be out on the floor really pushing drinks. It’s tax time so people will have more money to spend. Hand out drink cards, be out there as much as possible. Do whatever you have to do to keep people in the room!”

Underneath, handover notes from morning shift staff read, “A few faces (not regulars) came back today that were in yesterday for Sunday Funday, pushing drinks and sandwiches/cakes to keep them coming back!”

They later note a regular gambler “came in at midday”. “1:50pm: We’ve had a few big hitters in the room for about an hour now! Young couple betting $3 and $4, as well as [the regular] hitting his usual $5! Could be a great hour!”

The notes go on to say the room took in $18,700 in the hour. “Smashing out drinks to keep everyone in the room,” it said. “Another great hour for 2pm, $18,000 again.”

On a separate sheet, staff are reminded of incentives available, including a $20 gift card “when you beat your shift target”, and a $50 gift card for every staff member that beats their target that week “if we exceed the turnover target of $1.7 million”.

“Slow start to the day in gaming,” morning handover notes read. “Extremely busy in restaurant. Gaming drink/coffee rounds consistently offered throughout the day with only small punters in the room. Only one hot platter supplied during the day. A lot of elderly people in however not a lot of T/O [turnover].”

Evening shift staff then added, “Started slow, picked after nine, coffees, drink shouts and toasties trying to keep them in, a lot of promo tickets going out.”

Staff at ALH share notes on pokies players.Source:Supplied

“They just think that you are having a general chitchat.”Source:Supplied

In the interview released by Mr Wilkie’s office, the whistleblower said a lot of people in the industry felt uncomfortable with the “predatory tactics”.

“It’s unethical, and essentially you are looking over people’s shoulders, and documenting what people are doing and they don’t know that you are doing that,” he said. “They just think that you are having a general chitchat with them but you’re actually profiling it.

“It used to be an unwritten thing, you’d talk to patrons in a genuine sense. But now those genuine interactions aren’t what they used to be. We’re actually writing it down so that we can get people to stay for as long as possible to put as much money into the machines as possible.

“You know the ins and outs of their life. You’re writing down what they do, what time they normally come in, the teams they barrack for, and then you can go and have a conversation with them very, very easily because you’ve got that background information. The longer people stay there, the more they lose, that’s how pokies work.”

He said the more people bet, the more attention staff would pay to them.

“If you’re betting $5, the company is going to look after you because you’re going to lose the most amount,” he said. “So we’ll spend more looking after you to keep you there longer because you’re important.”

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The whistleblower added, “Over the years I’ve seen people crying at their machines or urinating on their chairs because they have been playing for so long, they’ll stay all day and even sometimes wet themselves. It’s not right, how can that be right?”

In a speech to Parliament on Wednesday morning, Mr Wilkie slammed the behaviour as “immoral” and “possibly illegal”. “In all these venues, there are some staff who record personal information about poker machine players, without their knowledge, and share it electronically with the other venues,” he said.

“This isn’t just basic information — we’re talking things like jobs, times people come in, favourite drinks, favourite football teams, whether they have a partner and what their preferred bet level is.”

Mr Wilkie said in Tasmania alone, Woolworths owned five poker machine venues at which Tasmanians lost $10 million every year, including $4 million in his electorate.

“This makes a complete and utter mockery of the ridiculous claims being made by the poker machine industry in Tasmania as part of the ‘Love Your Local’ campaign, because these revelations show that these aren’t loveable local pubs but rather very big business that shares its customers’ most private details,” he said.

“And not only are they big business, they’re also a part of a co-ordinated campaign to spy on unknowing patrons so they can fleece even more money out of their pockets, including the gambling addicts who make up 15 per cent of people who play weekly.”

Mr Wilkie said the revelations “demonstrate just how low the poker machine industry stoops to create addicts”. “We already know this is an industry that is prepared to lie to the community, whether it’s about jobs or the rates of gambling addiction,” he said.

“And now we know the industry is prepared to abuse the trust of their customers to make money. This is disgraceful behaviour and they should be called out.”

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In a statement, ALH head of regulatory and corporate affairs David Curry said the company “takes its obligations for the Responsible Service of Gaming and the Responsible Service of Alcohol in all its venues extremely seriously”.

“Our industry and operations are robustly regulated by independent authorities in each state and our compliance with all laws and regulations is not negotiable,” he said.

“ALH must put its customers’ interests first. There is a line which must be respected between legitimate customer service and loyalty initiatives that are part and parcel of every hospitality business and the requirements of the RSG and RSA codes.

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“If there are instances where that line has been crossed ALH is committed to taking the necessary steps to rectify any breach and address any non-compliant behaviour.

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“To this end we have notified the independent regulator in Queensland where the matters canvassed today originated in mid-2017 and stand ready to provide any assistance or further information if the regulator requires.”

In a statement, Woolworths Group chairman Gordon Cairns said the company was “concerned” about the allegations. “We and ALH take our responsibilities in gaming and the service of alcohol very seriously,” he said.

“At Woolworths, our priorities and values must always match those of our customers and communities we operate in and this includes taking important steps to ensure we, through ALH, are a responsible gaming operator.

“At its last Annual General Meeting, Woolworths reaffirmed its commitment to being the leader in responsible gaming which is conducted through its joint venture with ALH.

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“In late 2017 ALH engaged Canada’s Responsible Gambling Council, an independent non-profit organisation dedicated to problem gambling prevention, to conduct an independent review of ALH’s gaming operations.

“ALH will expand RGC’s review to include the allegations raised by the former ALH employees and Mr Andrew Wilkie. We would encourage them, Mr Wilkie and any others with relevant information to be part of the independent review.”

ALH has been contacted for comment.