‘Sorry Nick. We will kill you all off’: Aristocrat challenged over Xenophon text

As the directors of Aristocrat Leisure fronted the company’s annual general meeting on Friday, shareholders could be forgiven for supposing the company secretary had passed a lemon down the row for each of them to suck. She was beaming, but the eight people to her right were not.

Before the end of the meeting, one of the company’s executives would be exposed for sending a “kill text” to a senator in the executive’s former role as an industry lobbyist, and chairman Neil Chatfield would be forced to deny accusations of industry collusion and political nepotism.

The second largest manufacturer of poker machines in the world has thrived on its ability to avoid questions about the role its products have played in gambling addiction and money laundering. Its market value of $23 billion is just behind supermarket giant Coles.

But as political momentum builds to reform the gambling industry, it was inevitable the company would come under scrutiny. This meeting was attended by shareholder activist Stephen Mayne, making a mischievous run for a board position, along with gambling reform campaigner and former senator Nick Xenophon, and clubs industry whistleblower Troy Stolz.

“Aristocrat, with its 50 per cent market share, is the gorilla behind the scenes, and the clubs and pubs are the ones out in front,” Mayne said.

And the directors were made to squirm. For a company that claims it leaves politics to the politicians, why did Aristocrat hire the son of the NSW Police Minister David Elliott, an outspoken supporter of the pubs and clubs industry? (The company has excellent hiring policies, and will not be drawn on individuals.) Why does the company continue to use language such as “problem gambler” that places the onus of blame on the player, rather than terms which acknowledge the addictive technology? (The company is using the terms coined by others.) Does it accept the finding of the NSW Crime Commission that poker machines are used for money laundering? And if so, should it withdraw from the market the older machines that allow $10,000 to be loaded onto them at a time? (The company has a strong approach to compliance.)

Xenophon’s first questions harked back to 2018, when he was defeated as an independent running for the South Australian parliament on an anti-gambling platform. In the early hours of the morning, he received a text message from Anthony Ball, who is currently the head of government and industry relations for Aristocrat, but was then the chief executive of ClubsNSW. The message read: “Sorry Nick. We’ll kill you all off.”

Xenophon directed his question at Chatfield: “Given Mr Ball’s very important role in your business to engage with stakeholders to engage with government, with politicians, with key stakeholder groups, do you have a comment to make about Mr Ball’s kill text? Do you consider it was inappropriate?”