The largest Australian operator of poker machines is Woolworths Limited / Safeway and its associated companies. Initially, the scope of this wiki was limited to reporting upon the 100 Safeway / Woolworths' and associate's Victorian hotels and clubs covering over 6,700 poker machines.
While this wiki is initially intended to be a collaborative report on whether Safeway / Woolworths is meeting its own standards and its legal responsibilities; by providing on-site information about each venue, it is also intended to assist Safeway/Woolworths with its stated goal to be a leader in responsible poker machine operations.
South Australian venues have now been added and a Coles / Liquorland owned venue has been inspected. Other venues promoting children's meals or playgrounds were included too.
Constructive collaboration between the community and the venue operator (whether it be Safeway/Woolworths or other hotels and clubs) will lead to more responsible gambling processes.
Further inspections will help too.

Safeway/Woolworths Own Standards
The Chief Executive Officer of Safeway/Woolworths, Michael Luscombe, stated that it is his company's internal covenant to take a leadership position in the area of problem gaming and that Safeway/Woolworth takes its responsibilities "very very very seriously". His statement sets standards for his company.

Michael Luscombe's Statement
This statement was made to Woolworths Limited's shareholders at their Annual General Meeting on 16 November 2007 in response to a question asked by Stephen Mayne, a Woolworths shareholder.

"We don’t have ATMs in our gaming areas. We don’t cash cheques in those hotels. We do have facilities for self barring in all of our hotels. (Is that right, Bruce? Right?). On all of our gaming machines there are signs talking about the fact that you cannot win on those machines, right in front of the face of that area. We don’t allow people to eat in those areas. There are clocks in all of the gaming areas so people understand how long they’ve been there.
We take this very very very seriously. And… I’m a little bit disappointed that a shareholder would not have recognised it when visited one of our hotels that that’s the case. Because I can assure you that from the ALH board down and the management of Bruce Mathieson senior, in particular, take this very very seriously.
And we want to take a leadership position on this in our industry. In fact, our internal covenant for that is, in fact, to take a leadership position in the area of problem gaming."

To listen to the audio of Mr. Luscombe's standards statement in its context please click on the video logo below:


Visiting Safeway/Woolworths' hotels, Coles/Liquorland hotels and other pokie venuesContributors to this site will take up Mr. Luscombe's invitation to visit their pokie venues and report back on what they see. The page titled "What does PokieWatch tell me about Victorian pokie venues?" suggests what people might want to look for and how they might want to report upon what they see. Our web page called the Pokiewatch Inspection Checklist will help too. You can download a checklist for South Australia at the bottom of its page. Click here for the South Australia page. Check them out.

What's with the maps?The Victorian map shows hotels operated by Safeway/Woolworths or associated interests in the Melbourne area. It includes the Australian Leisure And Hospitality Group (ALH), the Taverner group of companies and the Mathieson group of companies. The signatory on the most recent returns for these venues in nearly every instance is Mr. Ross Blair-Holt as Chief Operating Officer.
Please click on the Victorian map graphic to see all Safeway/Woolworths or associated venues. A red marker indicates that the venue is licensed for more than 100 pokies. A yellow marker indicates 60 to 99 pokies. A blue marker indicates less than 60 machines. Markers with black dots indicate associated clubs or hotels likely managed for others. It may also indicate venues not inspected. The information is based upon the web site of the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation (VCGR).

The map of Adelaide shows Woolworths and Coles / Liquorland associated venues and is based upon the results of searching the database of the Office of the Liquor & Gambling Comissioner. Click here for the OLGC's search page.

Click here for the list of Woolworths' hotels and click here for the list of Coles / Liquorland hotels. These lists were used for the Brisbane map. Inspection of the Brisbane hotels will occur over the next few months.
All maps are interactive and provides links to all the hotels' Pokiewatch web pages where the venue has been visited.

It is the essence of this wiki website that all are welcome to collaboratively correct any mistakes or add new information.
Please read the PokieWatch.org user agreement