2 minute read
From the General Manager
from Hotel SA July 2021
by Boylen
IAN HORNE – AHA|SA GENERAL MANAGER
Common Sense Win
The return to 75% trading capacities and the other flow on activities like stand-up consumption, dancing and singing are most welcome and consistent with the Premier’s undertaking not to impose restrictions one day longer than necessary.
The uplift for operators in the first week of school holidays will have a significant boost to the spirits and optimism of operators and patrons alike.
Thank you to the Government, the Police Commissioner and SA Health for taking action that, in the face of the evidence, made sense.
It should be noted, however, that 100% restoration is a legitimate ambition and one that can easily be achieved with a more effective use of QR scanning and a more urgent vaccination program.
As for QR scanning, industry can play a big role including supporting AHA|SA’s campaign called ‘Show Us Your Tick’. Let’s make sure that access to the QR code is readily available so no patron could not ignore the opportunity to sign in.
Whether a venue is at 75% or 100%, the risk of community transmission must be reduced if SA Health can confidently identify all attendees if called on to do so.
Industry support and promotion of the QR scanning facility is the quickest way back to ‘normal’ trading.
GAMING UPLIFT AFTER A DECADE OF DECLINE
The June 2021 NGR for gaming in SA was $67.38m, which represents a 23.1% increase over June 2019 (June 2020 had only two days of gaming trade). This produced an annual NGR result of $769.88m, being a 12.95% increase when compared to the full year of 2018/19 – remember that 2019/20 was a basket case with a drop in revenue of $172.33m over the previous year.
The State gaming tax for 2020/21 also gets a lift with a return to Government of tax in the vicinity of $308m (rule of thumb is tax makes up approx. 40% of NGR. GST is additional based on total NGR). This correlates exactly with State Treasury estimates in the recently published State Budget.
Obviously this was expected and reflected in the State taxation estimate. It also reflects many contributing factors that include pent up demand following near three months closure, new technology, new games and machines (replacing old and obsolete product), a general and strong increase in all gambling expenditure during COVID-19, and similar experiences in certain types of retail, motor vehicle and real estate prices and significant increases in Household savings during COVID-19.
And all of this with the introduction of Australia’s tightest rules around access to ATM and EFTPOS cash, lowest denomination bills and bill inputs (amount that can be put into an EGM) and Australia’s first state-wide facial recognition system.
Facial Recognition Systems is a best practice game changer that makes the detection of problem gamblers close to fool proof and supports venue staff in fulfilling their obligations of providing those that have problems with their gambling to access appropriate support.
