Stop the Pokies at Greenslopes Bowls Club

Brisbane City Council have confirmed their plans to expand pokies in Greenslopes at the site of the old Greenslopes Bowls Club.

The old Club Greenslopes was an incredible site for live music, arts and culture as well as a vital low-cost space for community fundraisers and events.

But now, Council has selected their preferred tenant for the site is the Coorparoo RSL and Community Club, which will mean the introduction of dozens of pokies to the venue.

The last thing the community needs is more pokies. Australians lose approximately $25 billion to gambling every year, including $11 billion from pokies in pubs, clubs and venues other than casinos.

Exploitative pokie machines don’t enrich our community spaces, they are expertly designed for addiction and have already destroyed thousands of Australian lives. And when people live close to pokies venues, they are more likely to experience serious financial and mental health consequences.

Publicly owned venues shouldn’t be hosting pokie machines. But here in Greenslopes, the LNP Council have decided to move a pokies venue in without any consultation.

We have a rare opportunity to establish a new inclusive and versatile community space we so desperately need, and it starts with rejecting the plan for more pokies and sending Council back to the drawing board.

Council still haven’t finalised their lease negotiations at the Bowls Club, so it’s not too late for them to change course and give the community a real say in what we’d really like to see at Greenslopes Bowls Club.

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We demand the Brisbane City Council reject and ban the inclusion of pokie machines at the Greenslopes Bowls Club site, and give the community a say in what we would like to see at our community club.

As communities like those around Greenslopes, Stones Corner and Woolloongabba grow and densify, the need for inclusive and versatile community spaces becomes even more critical, and the opportunities to protect and promote these spaces come few and far between.

We reject the proposed expansion of pokies into the Greenslopes Bowls Club site which will target the vulnerable and spread financial hardship, mental health stress and addiction through our community.

Instead, we call on Brisbane City Council to conduct a proper consultation on what residents would like to see from their community venue, as Council should have done in the first place.

With no other community facilities in the Greenslopes suburb, it’s extremely important that we keep this facility fit for our communities needs.

Furthermore, we call on the Council to step in and proactively fund necessary works at this venue to support a versatile and creative community space without outsourcing this responsibility onto community non-profits, or depending on gambling revenue.