Tabcorp urges gaming regulation reform

Funke Kupper says the current situation means bookmakers can operate from a state or territory outside NSW and Victoria, where Tabcorp operates the TAB, offering products online without paying the same taxes or fees.

"If you look at the business that we operate in Victoria and NSW, they are actually significantly disadvantaged because the new players over the internet arbitrage significant tax and fee advantages that we don't have," Funke Kupper told ABC television. "All we are saying is, can we get the rules to be the same."

The corporate bookmakers who operate outside NSW and Victoria were also not contributing enough to the racing industry in fees, and thereby supporting the product they made money from, Funke Kupper said. "Last year we paid some $ 540 million to the racing industry. The bookmakers paid almost nothing," he said.

Governments needed to "make sure that every bookmaker around the country contributes at the right level to the industry". "You put that in place you can have a competitive wagering market and a well funded racing industry and that's our argument," he said.

Tabcorp had set up its own bookmaker in the Northern Territory to take advantage of the loopholes its competitors were using, while also offering more fixed odds, rather than through TAB's totalising system, to help maintain profit, Funke Kupper said. "We are in part participating in that trend because we can't wait for governments to get the rules right in the next three to five years, if at all."

Last week, Tabcorp reported a net profit of $ 521.7 million for the 2008/09 year, compared with a loss of $ 164.6 million the prior year when it booked one-off charges relating to its Victorian gaming and wagering licences.

Tabcorp also said it would spend an extra $ 100 million on redeveloping its Star City casino in Sydney, bringing the project's new estimated cost to $ 575 million. But Funke Kupper denied that it was a cost blowout; rather, it was a deliberate increase in budget after a review.

Gaming, nightlife and food and beverage facilities were being expanded and repaired, something that should have been done right 10 years ago, he said. "So it's an increase in scope and an increase in investment."