The Victorian State Government is soon to decide on who has the licence to sell lottery product here. Greek lottery company, Intralot, is said to be well placed to win the right to run scratchie games. Their pitch, apparently, is that they will sell these through supermarkets. As if Coles and Safeway need to extend their range further into small business territory.
If Steve Bracks takes scratch tickets away from newsagencies and lottery small businesses he joins a growing line of politicians who care less about small businesses and those they employ.
Newsagents and other small businesses have had scratch tickets since their introduction. We service the market well and adhere to responsible gambling regulations. There is no reason to take this business from newsagents – certainly no reason to line the pockets of Coles and Safeway shareholders.
Driving traffic to newsagencies is a finely tuned balance of products and services. Continually chipping away at that runs the risk of bringing the house down. Giving scratch ticket product to Coles and Safeway could take as much as 10% of gambling gross profit and a chunk of traffic leading to other sales. Newsagents will need to respond by cutting staff. How does this work for the State Government?
with scratchies available at supermarkets, how many kids will miss out on dinner because mum or dad spent the grocery money on lottery tickets?
The flow on effects like cutting the small business workforce will be a reality if these Newsagency services are being diluted with reduced recharge cards commissions, Government owned post/office product shop monopolys, coupled with the magazine oversupply and long shelf magazine issues will only see Newsagents lose control of a balanced business.
Fred’s point is a real good indication or the lack of foresight that this idea will create if implemented, its absolute greed at the expense of the vunerable who cannot control the urge to buy these tickets at the expense of there families.
Once these giant supermarkets get lotto … newsagents will be finished.
Coles and Woolworths wont stop until they have every channel under their control.
We see it with petrol, liquor, stationary …. and we know they want their hands on lotto and pharmaceuticals.
Geez louise, is the government so hungry for gambling dollars that they have to put gambling with groceries? I hope some anti gambling lobby gets onto this. You just don’t need it at the supermarket. That is just ridiculous.
They are following the US example and potentially killing a small business channel along the way.