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Debby Pokies at Woolies

Deborah Lilly supporting the GetUp campaign against woolworths poker machines

A long-time campaigner to keep Woolworths out of Mullumbimby went into the supermarket this week. “Of course I didn’t go there to shop” says Deborah Lilly “I went to give the manager a letter asking Woolworths to make pokies safer”.

Members of GetUp who are also Woolworths shareholders have called for an Extraordinary General Meeting on 22 November to discuss the massive revenue Woolworths rakes in from their poker machines. The Productivity Commission Gambling Report 2010 cites Woolworths as the single largest owner and operator of dangerous high loss poker machines in the country. Poker machine addiction is the most insidious form of gambling addiction in the industry, reaping more than 40% of its revenue from problem gamblers. It accounts for 1 in 5 suicidal patients seen by the emergency department of Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital.