31 August 2004

Pokies, man.

This article appears to be the NSW State:
a) reassuring NSW "clubs" that they can still make money from their poker machines
b) explaining that "clubs" that make less than one million dollars ..assume Dr evil voice.. from them will actually pay less tax than they were before [this is a good thing????]
c) and listing the hundreds that earn over $1M who will pay more tax

And the federal government:
a) asserting that the increased "pokie tax" has cost thousands of jobs already [it was only introduced last Wednesday]
b) predicting that people will stage mass protests in Hyde Park against the pokie tax

Hello? Is any one out there? Is anyone awake? Like, what , all those people who flock to mass entertainment venues, (they're not clubs in the old fashioned sense of dib dib dib anymore I do declare), for the extremely cheap drinks, bodgy djs and seafood basket specials, actually *care* about what the the club pays out of its pokie profits. Right on, get out there and march against the man, taxing those good, pure, true and honest "gaming" dens. Fight the power. Huh?

The old argument goes that clubs put money into the community and this will reduce that amount. Snort snuffle snorlte. I 'm sure all my dear readers in this state will have difficulty reconciling the crowd huddled a those machines having much use of the sports field that the local league club recently re-seeded, or whatever it is they're supposed to have actually done. Has anyone seen a direct report of one of these mythical community projects by the way?


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