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This open letter was presented to the Essendon Football Club in July 2023.

 

An open letter to the Essendon Football Club;

Craig Vozzo
Chief Executive Officer,
Essendon Football Club,

Dear Mr Vozzo,

Time for Essendon Football Club to commit to exiting the poker machine industry

We, the undersigned, call on the Essendon Football Club to make a meaningful and public commitment to exit the poker machine industry.

Since 2010 over $150 million have been lost by people at Essendon-owned pokies venues. Poker machines are predatory, they are designed to be addictive, and that addiction can be destructive not just for those directly experiencing it but for the people close to them too.

One of the objects of the Essendon Football Club is ‘to preserve, foster and promote the ideals and traditions of the Club.’ Owning poker machine licences is not consistent with this object. 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 poker machine licences, the Essendon Football Club is instead profiting off the weakening of the communities where it operates.

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. Essendon will never be a great club while it continues to own poker machine licences.

We acknowledge that finding an alternative source of revenue for the club is a complex task. However, this should not be cause for inaction. North Melbourne, Collingwood, Western Bulldogs, Geelong, Melbourne and Hawthorn have all taken on this challenge and sold their poker machine licences.

It’s time for Essendon to do the same.

Sincerely,

 

No Pokies At Essendon (NoPE) Incorporated and the signatories listed below.

  • View Signatories

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