The New South Wales government is under pressure to change the rules that apply to the sale of lottery tickets in this state. There is a proposal being considered to allow Coles, Woolworths and other big retailers to allow customers to channel their gambling purchases through their checkouts - and if this goes ahead it will have impact on many aspects of life - as we know it !
Since the first state lottery was introduced the sale of tickets has been restricted to newsagents, and the renewal agreement for forty more years between Tatts and the NSW Labor government in 2010 continued this practice. This form of gambling is a huge cash cow for the state Treasury, delivering a tax take of $ 300 million, compared to Tatts profits of just $ 50 million.
Newsagents are devastated to hear that their monopoly on ticket sales is under threat. It is an integral part of their reason for opening their doors and trading, and the industry calculates that it delivers between 25% and 90% of the revenue that passes through their cash registers. It is quite clear that if they lose their lottery ticket trade there will be widespread closures - and governments need to think long and hard before making that decision.
Newsagencies are already under threat from a diminishing newspaper trade and those glossy magazines we treasured years ago are giving way to the same sort of celebrity information now presented on the ubiquitous "Smartphones " that are today's "must have "! Many are morphing into virtual mixed markets in a desperate attempt to remain profitable.
Coles and Woolworths are on the march to total retail domination, branching out into car fuel, insurance and hardware, but if they gain the right to sell lottery tickets, it is doubtful if that will result in even a single additional job in their stores. The numbers of "Checkout Chicks "is ever decreasing, replaced by self serve terminals - and lottery tickets will be folded in as just another sale to tempt the customer shopping by "pressing console buttons " !
On the other end of the scale, the loss of jobs in the newsagency trade will be calamitous.Every city suburb and even the tiniest country town has a newsagency and these provide employment to the proprietors and both regulars and casuals that extend to those who deliver the morning newspapers to homes to the extras needed to man the register every time Lotto has a jackpot extravaganza. To many newsagents, the business is their superannuation pot. Selling a thriving business on retirement is the nest egg for a comfortable old age.
The follow-on from newsagency closures would be huge. It would probably deliver the final blow to print newspaper publishing, and job losses in the glossy magazine industry and the advertising world would be extensive. This decision on the fate of lottery ticket sales will have a big bearing on who takes home a pay packet each Thursday night across Australia.
There is a ray of hope that those wanting to keep Coles and Woolworths at bay will cling to. Deep in the fine print of that forty year extension is a clause that refers to "adverse regulatory events "- and withdrawing a nominated sales monopoly would certainly fit that definition. It opens the door for a compensation claim - and probably a class action.
The anti gambling people will probably also climb onto the bandwagon. Existing legislation prevents the purchase of lottery tickets using credit cards, and much of the grocery trade is made using that medium. It would be hard to differentiate just what is included in a mixed sale.
All that is a very good reason for the legislators to avoid making a quick decision. The ramifications go far and wide - and the deciding issue could be the jobs question !
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