Melbourne Football Club has committed to cutting its gambling ties, announcing it will end financial dependence on poker machines.
The Demons on Wednesday announced the Leighoak Club, with 92 poker machines, had been sold to Moonee Valley Racing Club effective from July 31. The club will still be backed by 88 machines at the Bentleigh Club until August 2022, when those gaming entitlements end.
Chairman Glen Bartlett said the announcement was a “significant day” for the club.
“Gaming isn’t our core business and whilst it has been a financial imperative to operate within this space in the past, we feel the time was right to take action to exit the industry,” Bartlett said in a statement.
CEO Peter Jackson said the club would need to claw back about 10 per cent of its overall revenue after losing pokies income.
“Over a two- to three-year period, we will be able to re-adjust and grow, and we have several ideas on how to do that,” he said on Wednesday.
The club’s 2017 financial report put revenue for the year ending October 31 at $51,988,711 and reported ‘social and gaming revenue’ of $11,641,049.
Poker machines at the Leighoak club raked in $7,747,207.34 in the 2016/17 financial year. Machines at the Bentleigh club brought in $2,564,945.12 in the same period, according to Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation figures.
Bartlett said the club was “in the strongest financial position it has ever been in” and said the decision was securing “the best commercial outcome” while “prioritising the community sentiment”.
“With our members support, we are well-placed to grow football-related income and to refocus our business to make the transition from our reliance on gaming to ensure that we are financially strong and stable for our next generation.”
He said the AFL did not pressure the club to end its pokies dependence.
“This was the best business decision for our football club,” he said.