About NoPE
NoPE is a grassroots group of Essendon fans who believe that the job of repairing the club can never be complete while Essendon continues to operate pokies.
Our aim is for the club to make a meaningful and public commitment to exit the pokies business.
At the end of the 2022 AFL season the Essendon Football Club started a process of transformational change. At the heart of this was a desire to return the club to its once great status. To be a leader on and off the field. There is however one major change still required before Essendon can once again be a truly great club.
The Essendon Football Club must move to a revenue model that is not reliant on profits from their ownership of 190 poker machines across two venues; one in Melton and the other at our spiritual home of Windy Hill. Since 2010 over $150million have been lost by people at those two venues. Pokies are designed to be addictive and that addiction can be destructive not just for those directly experiencing the harm but for the people close to them too.
The origins of many sporting clubs, such as Essendon, lay in the desire to improve the health and wellbeing of the communities from which they were born. Through its ownership of pokies, the Essendon Football Club is instead profiting off the weakening of the communities where it operates.
We acknowledge that finding an alternative source of revenue for the club is a complex task. This though should not be cause for inaction. North Melbourne, Collingwood, Western Bulldogs, Geelong, Melbourne and Hawthorn have all took on this challenge and sold their poker machine licences.
It’s time for Essendon to do the same.
Why NoPE need to keep Essendon Accountable
At the end of the 2022 AFL season the Essendon Football Club started a process of transformation. At the heart of the upheaval was a desire to return the club to its once great standing and become a leader both on and off the field.
If you go back far enough, many sporting clubs, such as Essendon, were born from a vision to improve the health and wellbeing of their local community. While commercial sport has changed significantly from those early days, community is still a key part of what makes a great footy club. Through its dual existence as both a football club and a pokies operator, the Essendon Football Club profits off the weakening of the communities where it operates.
In the years before NoPE’s formation Essendon had been largely silent on the future of their pokies operations, after hinting at future moves away from gaming revenue in 2018;
On 9 July 2018, The Age reported:
In March, Essendon announced a deal with RMIT University, with Campbell saying at the time it was such partnerships that would help his club wean off pokie revenue. The Bombers have also purchased an eSports team in another push to grow revenue from an alternate source.
On 11 December 2018, The Age reported:
Last month, Essendon CEO Xavier Campbell told The Age: “We have spoken to this publicly on a number of occasions – we endeavour to become less reliant on gaming as a revenue stream and we have invested heavily in building our strategy and investment divisions to work toward exploring opportunities in this space.
As other clubs sold their pokies assets, Essendon’s words were not matched by actions. At Essendon’s 2021 AGM then-President Paul Brasher confirmed that there were no intentions to exit the gambling industry, stating Essendon’s pokies operations were:
‘a relevant part of our operations, I’ve said that already, and we’ll continue to regard it as being something that we’ll operate responsibly.’
Since NoPE’s formation, Essendon has sought to delay the issue, telling The Age on May 23 2023 that:
“Any decision on the long-term future of our venues will need to be carefully considered by the board,” an Essendon Football Club statement read.
The financial stability and independence of the club is paramount, and we won’t compromise that by making a rushed short-term decision.”
Despite five years passing since the club first raised the development of alternative revenue streams, Essendon’s suggestion of an exit being a rushed short-term decision confirmed that they were happy to continue profiting off their gambling operations.
If Essendon FC wants to remain committed to its Poker Industry investment, then NoPE wants to make sure that they are at least held accountable for this decision.
What’s NoPE doing about it?
NoPE launched in May 2023 with an open letter calling on the Essendon Football Club to publicly commit to making a timely exit from their pokies operations. Over 250 Essendon members and fans signed the letter which we presented to Essendon CEO Craig Vozzo in a meeting with him and other Essendon executives in July 2023.
We have ensured public pressure remains on the club by helping the topic stay in the media, ensuring the club cannot stay silent about the damage their pokies cause.
At the 2023 Essendon AGM, NoPE committee member Graham Evans ran for the Essendon board, against the two incumbent directors Tim Roberts and Kevin Sheedy, on an anti-pokies platform. While he didn’t win one of the two seats, Graham’s total vote was the 5th highest of all 38 candidates who have run for the board in the past decade, with only high-profile club figures Kevin Sheedy (twice), Sean Wellman, Andrew Welsh and current director Tim Roberts having recorded higher tallies.
The significance of the support for the anti-pokies message was acknowledged by club President Dave Barham, who during the Q&A section of the AGM stated:
“It’s a lot of votes. So I saw it, we all saw it, so… it’s something the members are talking about, something the fans want, and it’s something the boards gotta address.”
NoPE continues to work to ensure that this doesn’t become another empty promise.