A FOOTSCRAY professor has described Braybrook Hotel’s application for 19 extra poker machines as an “act of social vandalism”.
The hotel has applied to the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation to increase its number of electronic gaming machines to 50 as part of a two-stage $6.2 million redevelopment.
But senior lecturer in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University, Dr Charles Livingstone said enough was enough.
“There are already far too many poker machines in this very disadvantaged suburb,’’ he said.
‘‘To increase accessibility to poker machines in this suburb would be an act of social vandalism and wreak considerable additional harm on an area which is already suffering significantly from gross disadvantage.
“I expect Maribyrnong council will vigorously oppose the application and I sincerely hope the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation takes careful account of the likely negative impacts arising from this application.”
Braybrook is the 11th-most-disadvantaged suburb in Victoria. Dr Livingstone said the ratio of machines per 1000 people would jump from 13.1 to 16 if the plan was green-lit.
“[That’s] nearly triple the average for Melbourne,” he said.
However, a report showed an independent phone survey involving 300 residents from Braybrook, Maid- stone, Sunshine, Sunshine North and Avondale Heights found 52 per cent of respondents supported the plan.
“The survey shows that while the community supports the overall redevelopment of the Braybrook Hotel, support for the introduction of gaming machines is considerably lower. However, respondents do not expect to experience impacts personally to any high degree, but are concerned as to possible impacts on the community at large,” the report said.
A social and economic impact statement said the development would result in a “positive impact on the local community”, creating 24 additional full-time jobs, despite “potential for some dis-benefit . . . such as a potential increase in problem gambling.”
Maribyrnong council did not respond to a request for comment.
