A Club In Darwin Has Ditched Its Pokies And Is Being Flooded With Messages Of Support

Australia has a bit of a gambling problem. In 2013, Australia had the sixth-highest number of poker machines in the world, and the astronomical profits the gaming industry enjoys primarily come from disadvantaged suburbs where the risk of addiction, poverty and gambling abuse is much higher than the national average.

There are so many poker machines in Australia that it’s rare to come across a pub or club without at least a few, and even rarer to find one that’s willing to forgo pokie profits and consciously decide to scrap them. But that’s what one club in Darwin has just done. This week the Darwin Sailing Club announced that it would be crushing its ten poker machines after finding their members overwhelmingly supported the pokies being removed. “The Sailing Club’s objectives are about the promotion and the sport of sailing, and gaming isn’t a part of that,” club manager David Melenewycz told ABC Darwin on Wednesday.

Since then, the club’s received a massive number of responses from people showing support for the move. “My phone’s gone flat twice. I’ve had to recharge twice from all the calls and texts I’ve had from people interested in what’s going on,” Melenewycz said. A local fireworks shop even offered to make like the Whitlams song and blow up one of the club’s abandoned pokies, but unfortunately territory law requires poker machines to be disposed of in less flammable ways. They were sent to the local scrapyard instead.

It’s not the first time that a pub or club has gotten positive coverage after ditching poker machines. Back in December, the Old Bush Inn in Willunga, South Australia ditched its ten pokies and was flooded with messages of support from locals and glowing press from around the country. While it’s difficult for many pubs to give up the revenue pokies bring in, stories like this may encourage more venues to do the same.

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Via ABC.