Imagine that. The Gillard Green/Left government poured bribes compensation cash into the accounts of welfare recipients, who promptly blew their “free money” on slot machines and booze. Guess who still won’t be able to meet the increased cost imposition of the carbon [dioxide] tax. How long before someone figures out that it is better not to rip everyone off with an additional tax imposition and give cash to “offset” this cost to those not earning a living?
Pokies have swallowed a chunk of the federal government’s carbon tax compensation, new figures suggest.
Revealed today by The Australian Financial Review, the figures show handouts to low-income earners under the scheme have led to surges in gaming revenues from pubs and clubs in Queensland and Victoria.
They show that there was a 7 per cent rise in poker machine revenues in Queensland in May when the government’s first clean energy payment was made to eligible people.
And the following month poker machine revenue rose by almost 12 per cent in the state on a year-by-year basis.
Across Victoria, statistics from the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation show an expenditure spike in some local council areas in May too. Figures for June are yet to be released.
Poker machine operators Coles and Echo Entertainment have both also reportedly seen stronger revenues in May and June.
The revelations have been seized upon by anti-poker machine campaigners as a further example of how poker machines tend to target low-income areas, where government handouts are highest.
I put mine towards food for me and my children. We usually rely on lots of pasta and rice to make up our staple for dinner, but this time we had salmon fillets and sirloin steak for the first time in ages.