Aristocrat not worried about poker restrictions in Australia

Revealing the company's half-year results yesterday, which showed a 23 % drop in revenue and a net profit of us$ 49.5 million, Aristocrat's chief executive, Jamie Odell, said he did not expect a new government would act soon on recommendations of the Productivity Commission's recent report on gambling, and did not factor it into his outlook.

The report, published in June, proposes us$ 1 bet limits with a maximum of us$ 20 to be fed into a machine at any one time and recommends a pre-commitment system by 2016, for players to set a limit on the amount they are prepared to lose. The former prime minister Kevin Rudd referred the report to a council of state governments to consider.

Once the election results are known, the new parliament may include the independent anti-pokie campaigner Andrew Wilkie. The Greens, who support greater restrictions on poker machines, will hold the balance of power in the Senate. Odell told analysts yesterday that it was too early to know what all this might mean, and any changes would need to be managed ''in an orderly manner through new product coming through''.

''In the short term I'm not factoring anything in around the government because, like you, I don't know which government we will take or what influence that will have, but I would think with all the other issues around it wouldn't be the first cab off the block.''

Aristocrat's profit includes a us$ 12.7 million sale of an asset, but also represents a turnaround from the us$ 33 million loss the company reported this time last year, and its us$ 157 million full-year loss. It reported encouraging results in its biggest market, North America, where profit rose 5.5 % in local currency, but it made a us$2.3 million loss in Japan.

Australian revenue fell 22 % and profit fell 46 % to $11.8 million. Odell described the local result as unacceptable and attributed it to difficult market conditions ''legacy issues'' within the company.

Aristocrat reported strong sales in Macau and in Singapore's two new casinos but Odell said he expected trading conditions to remain difficult in most markets. ''We do not expect any improvement over the balance of 2010.''

Aristocrat declared an unfranked 3.5 cent dividend to be paid on September 30. The profit results were roughly in line with expectations, and shares rose 2.62 % to close at us$ 3.52.