Just over a week ago, Carlton Football Club players donned their navy and orange jerseys, as well as orange socks, for the annual “Carlton Respects” game, which was played against the Melbourne Demons.
In its 10th year, the club spruiks the initiative as promoting gender equality and ending violence against women.

But the Blues’ reliance on pokies revenue – the highest of any club after fresh data showed punters last year lost $10 million at Carlton’s venues – flies in the face of its commitment to “strive for a future free of violence”, given poker machines’ direct links to domestic violence.

Charles Livingstone, one of the country’s foremost gambling researchers, described the club’s position as hypocritical.

“Carlton are taking money from areas where people are doing it comparatively tough, so it’s a bit hypocritical to argue they respect anyone when they are still operating a string of pokies venues,” he said.

“And then the AFL are making a motza out of gambling revenue from online bookies … and ganging up with other actors, including the broadcast industry and gambling industry, to oppose changes to advertising laws, which would have been beneficial in minimising the exposure to gambling.”

Gaming revenue and bookmaker deals are enmeshed within all major sporting codes, including the NRL, AFL and NBL.

The late federal Labor MP Peta Murphy, who chaired a parliamentary inquiry into gambling, described the relationship between sport and gambling as “intrinsically linked” and “causing increasingly widespread and serious harms to individuals, families and communities”.

Carlton, one of four AFL clubs still operating pokies venues, raked in more than $10 million from its four venues in the 2024-25 financial year, according to Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission data released on Friday. Essendon* pocketed $7.3 million from its two venues, while Richmond took $2.3 million and St Kilda received $900,000 from their single venues.

Calls for the four clubs – as well as the league – to divest from gaming have grown louder.

Carlton and Essendon* declined to comment on Friday, but have previously spoken of their desire to diversify their revenue stream to reduce their reliance on pokies. Richmond and St Kilda did not respond by deadline.

Money from gaming venues remains a pivotal source of income for the clubs.

Revenue from hospitality venues made up 20 per cent of Carlton and Essendon*’s total income last year, according to the clubs’ most recent annual reports released in December. It was a much smaller income stream for St Kilda and Richmond, where 3 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively, of their revenues came from hospitality.

Livingstone said that wasn’t good enough. The Monash University professor used Victoria Police crime data in 2018 to determine family violence rose by 22 per cent in areas where AFL pokies were found – a 5.7 per cent higher rate of increase than average.

“Even if the clubs just stuck the money they make from selling the venues into the hands of a fund manager, they’d be making a reliable and much more reputable stream of revenue,” he said.

“They get into the pokies business, and it requires enormous amounts of management and which diverts them from their principal purpose, and at the same time it destroys and damages the clubs’ reputation.”

Carlton powerbroker and pokies baron Bruce Mathieson said the campaign to get gambling out of the sporting code was “bullshit and crap”. He said Australian sports would not survive without gambling ads on television, and clubs would struggle to rake in revenue.

“You can’t be half-pregnant, can you? If there’s no gambling in football, rugby, everything, there’d be no sport,” Mathieson said.

“Use your own brain. Who else would advertise on it? Booze? Cigarettes? This is where you journalists are just as bad as them [anti-gambling advocates]. This is just rubbish what you’re saying.”

Mathieson, who is liquor retailer Endeavour Group’s largest shareholder, said when Western Bulldogs, Collingwood and Geelong weaned off pokies by selling their venues to a racing club, it did little to change the status quo.

“If Carlton got rid of their machines, another club would just get them, so what’s the point?”

If there’s no gambling in football, rugby, everything, there’d be no sport,” Mathieson said.

Really?

Yes, really.

And there would still be pokies.

How so? Maybe it'd be less lucrative, but people would still passionately support their clubs. Very few countries allow as much sports gambling advertising as we do, yet sport thrives. Now let's look at sports/sportsmen/teams that have been ruined by gambling...

Well, go on then. Which ones?

Hansie Cronje, the Pakistan cricket team, for starters. Ivan Toney and Sandro Tonali as recent EPL examples. Not even scratching the surface here.

Because it’s about integrity and long term
There are 6 Victorian clubs who survive financially without pokies
They are a blight on society
So is Bruce
Outdated old fart

Because it’s about integrity and long term
There are 6 Victorian clubs who survive financially without pokies
They are a blight on society
So is Bruce
Outdated old fart

Just for once - please forget about the ‘old’ Carlton people and focus on what they have given the club and how they have made it more financially viable again. Just once.

I'm not really sure what you're arguing. The original contention is that sport can't survive without gambling. That is a vague assertion that doesn't hold true in other countries. Maybe it's a blind spot for Australians, we probably made similar claims about tobacco advertising and will make the same about booze, but when I lived in France both of those were banned as sponsorship sources (Liverpool, who were sponsored by Carling at the time, had to wear plain shirts when playing Champions League games in France), and I don't know what the gaming laws were but I don't think I ever saw an ad for it. Meanwhile, the country that's taking over F1 and golf and has football in its sights is a country that'll throw you in a pit for a decade for even thinking about a pint and a punt. Not that I would ever want those cauliflower anywhere near our sport, but my point is there will always be someone wanting that sweet sweet exposure. But hey, let's take Bruce Mathieson's word for it, he seems trustworthy.

Just for once - please forget about the ‘old’ Carlton people and focus on what they have given the club and how they have made it more financially viable again. Just once.