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Tabcorp Holdings

Tabcorp Holdings is an Australian company with interests in gaming and wagering. It was formed through the privatisation of the Victorian Totalisator Agency Board (TAB) in 1994. The TAB ran all off-track betting on horse racing, greyhound racing, and harness racing in Victoria, as well as on-course totalisator betting. Since privatisation Tabcorp has diversified into other forms of gambling. It now has four major areas of activity:

1. It owns and operates four casino-hotel complexes; Star City Casino in Sydney, the Conrad Jupiters on the Gold Coast, Conrad Treasury Casino in Brisbane and Jupiters Townsville in Townsville. In 2004, these provided 41% of earnings.
2. It operates poker machines in many venues across Victoria; with it and Tattersalls the only two companies permitted to run the devices. It has a joint venture with Tattersalls to run keno games in hotels across the state. In 2004, 26% of earnings came from gaming.
3. It continues to operate off-course and on-course totaliser betting throughout Victoria and now New South Wales (through the acquisition of its privatised NSW equivalent Tab Limited) Betting is now available from many pubs as well as the traditional separate TAB betting shops, and the TAB offers bets on many sports activities other than horse racing. 28% of earnings came from wagering.
4. It operates Sky Channel, a national horse racing television network which broadcasts into TAB outlets and hotels, as well as a NSW-wide radio network. These provided 5% of earnings in 2004.

Tabcorp's operations employ about 12,000 people. Net profit after tax was approximately $471 million AUD in 2003-04, on revenues of about 2,500 million AUD.

Gambling, and especially "pokies" remain a somewhat contentious political issue in Australia, and like all gaming operators the efforts of Tabcorp to grow its gaming revenue can be politically controversial. Anti-gambling activists have noted that Tabcorp and its competitor have increasingly moved their allocated quota of poker machines around the state to maximise revenue, thus resulting in concentration of machines in working-class areas.

An investigation by news.com.au reporters Will Temple and David Higgins released on August 22nd 2007 claims that Tabcorp had secret approval from the NSW government to loan money to “select high value wagering customers”. (Credit: Wikipedia).

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