Hawthorn must end addiction to poker machines now

As we embark on an ambitious and high-budget plan to build a new home precinct, it would appear that reliance might remain for years to come. I support the aspiration of the development concept but not of a scale reliant at any level on gaming revenue.

My club, and any AFL club for that matter, should not profit from poker machine revenue. They should choose, on principle, to not profit from the exploitation of problem gamblers who are addicted, for whatever reason, to playing pokies. It is not a good reflection of the club's values. Nor, as an aside, do I believe is our acceptance of gambling-related sponsorship.

Pokie gambling scares me, with its big-business scale and skilful tactics that engage and entrap vulnerable people.

Hawthorn should abandon their addiction now, as several Victorian clubs have already, paying the necessary price. I understand that to dump a major revenue stream would necessitate a rethink of the project's scale and no doubt the club business model, but I am sure this is within the capabilities of the club board and administration.

Talk that such a move would plunge Hawthorn into the red doesn't stack up, Collingwood demonstrating a relatable example to the contrary. I also don't buy a second counter-argument I have heard expressed that the move will leave the broader problem unsolved once another organisation picks up our old machine licences.

Whilst true in the short term, to use that approach would be to hide in the common inertia from our responsibility, like a country refusing to act on climate change until all others commit first.

Rather than waiting for an improbable day that the AFL requires all clubs to pull out, we should take a lead and pull out now and, in doing so, give an important message of care for the Hawthorn family and for the broader public.

James Morrissey is a three-time Hawthorn premiership player.

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