While the Victorian Labor Government screwed up the introduction of Intralot in 2007, they are not to blame for the $63M loss by Intralot in my view. The blame for the loss rests with Intralot for poor management, Tatts for their sales counter land grab and several independent authorities that permitted small business newsagents to be treated in such a way that cost them millions in business costs and lost sales. In my view, many were involved in this mess, not just the Labor government.
I say the News Corp coverage is biased because they have not addressed the inaction by the Liberal government in their four years in power. If Labor is responsible for what happened from 2007, the Liberals are responsible from 2010.
Politicians on all sides let newsagents down. They left us to defend ourselves against extraordinary bullying by Tatts that cost us millions in capital and much more in lost sales. Newsagents lost while many parties, including News, stood by and watched as this happened.
At the heart of the issue was how we used the scratch ticket bays in our Tatts shop fit. The logical approach would have been to sell Intralot scratch tickets from here. Tatts said no. Newsagents were left with expensive real-estate that could not be converted to commercial use. To make things worse, we had to find space elsewhere at the counter, away from the Tatts real estate, for Intralot equipment and materials.
So here we are in a retail lease that we pay for and Tatts is in control, denying us an opportunity to operate commercially. No one knew that Tatts would behave as they did until Intralot started installing. Newsagents were left to fend for themselves.
Professional reporting would have included an analysis if scratch ticket sales around Australia fro 2007 to today and thorough comparison or a monopoly lottery situation versus the more competitive environment. While I don’t know what such investigation would have revealed, the report by News today is incomplete and, in my view, biased.
Well said Mark; unfortunately for those Intralot only outlets this decision will be a big kick in the guts!
Goodness Mark, with the greatest of respect, what a load of absolute cobblers.
How may Hungry Jacks Burgers do you buy at Maccas, the answer is none. Im sure pizza delivery would be much more efficient if the Pizza Hut guy delivered the Dominos while he was there…aint going to happen. This pie in the sky notion peddled by many including the LAAV that Tatts should give over their Franchise Assets to promote and sell an opposition product is farcical. Of course Tatts are within their rights to say not in our Branded area. I know many small business people who own franchised business and my assessment is that Tatts is one of best and least restrictive. Have a chat with a Chessecake Shop franchisee one day and you will understand what I mean.
The reality is that the decision to introduce a second lotteries license, lobbied for Intralot by former Labor Government ministers, was ridiculous. Any assessment of the capacity of retailers to accommodate the infrastructure required, the size of the overall lotteries revenue pool per retailer, the added costs of add on terminal and administration fees (both exorbitant), the entry fee to buy back what you already had, would have shown the idea was poor at best and in my mind worse and more sinister than that.
To somehow line up Newscorp bias as the headline on this is a very long bow. In any case as I have said on many occasions on this site, all privately owned media is biased and always has been so. Its a case of choose (and pay for) your poison. Public media on the other hand…….
James I am not aware of lobbying. The government went to tender.
Your analogies are flawed. My shop is my space, I pay all costs for it. Tatts demanded I maintain space off of which I could not earn a cent. It was unfair and is one reason I don;t deal with Tatts today.
The Herald Sun report is PR pure and simple. A fairer report would have also documented that the Liberals did nothing on this matter for the four years they held office. Both parties are as bad as each other on this matter yet the report does not report that.