ONLINE CASINO BONUS - Clubs vs Premier

ONLINE CASINO BONUS

Clubs vs Premier

In a reversal of North American trends where authority figures and poker are concerned, registered clubs in the Australian province of New South Wales will be taking on the premier Morris Iemma for not lowering the taxes on poker machines. The clubs are set to launch a new advertising campaign in two weeks, saying that the failure to cut taxes on the machines means a loss of funding for sporting competitions which particularly effects sports at the local level, and has also resulted in the loss of jobs.

Both Iemma and the state Labor Government are named as responsible in the ads, after formally rejecting a proposal by ClubsNSW for a reduction in the tax on poker machines after several weeks of negotiations. The clubs have been fighting attempts to raise the taxes on the machines as much as 49% since 2004. Tax cuts have been offered to smaller clubs, and the massive campaign has already seen the clubs reject one offer of tax cuts. ClubsNSW's counter offer would have cost the state Government about $800 million in lost revenue.

The chief executive of ClubsNSW, David Costello, said: "NSW registered clubs have been left with no choice but to escalate their campaign for a fair rate of poker machine tax following a government decision to reject an offer by ClubsNSW that would have seen clubs pay an extra $1.01 billion in tax. The offer put directly to Premier Iemma a fortnight ago would have seen clubs' total tax bill rise to a staggering $6.6 billion over the period 2005 to 2011 alone."

Ben Wilson, a spokesman for Mr Iemma, said: "In the context of the budget, the Government has indicated that it cannot accept the most recent offer on tax from the clubs, but we are happy to keep negotiating."
Clubs will be asked to contribute to a fighting fund over the next few days. Yesterday a spokesman for ClubsNSW, Jeremy Bath, said it was likely several million dollars would be spent on publicizing the club's grievances with the Government.