On June 16th, 2008, a lottery changed has forced gaming operator Tattersalls to closed down some of their well-known Tasmanian games like Tatts Scratchies. Three other games under Tattersalls will also stop by the end of this months: The games are the Tatts Keno, Tatts 2 and Wednesday Tatts Lotto.
Modifications to the licensing laws will mean that Tattersall's will need to say good bye to their hold in the market to make way for new participants in the lottery industry. But the new gambling company, believed to be Greek gaming organization Intralot, is not expected to be prepared to join the Tasmanian market for some weeks, which will leave the Tasmania Scratchie free in the interim.
Some of the 83 Tattslotto agents in Tasmania are getting frustrated on the slow debut of the alternative games, which resulted in anger and frustration from customers. Although Intralot is supposed to start offering the new games on July 1st, 2008, some agents believe that the company cannot meet the deadline. New Town Newsagency owner David Townley commented that he has not been able to receive scratchies for almost three weeks now and just recently run out of stock.
Australian Newspaper Federation Tasmanian branch manager Ben Kearney commented that there will be some questions regarding the new gambling products. Newagents run out of Tatts Scratchies just last week, which leave a lot of customers bewildered. Mr. Townley's said that the start-up costs of Intralot were so costly that retailers will not be able to make some profits for the initial year. He added that Intralot wanted a ten thousand dollars joining cost and a five thousand bank guarantee.
Townley said that Tatts Keno was one of the most in demand of the products that were set aside. It represents about 8% of the overall turnover. Tatts scratchies are very popular like keno and the two gambling products present a substantial percentage of the earnings of the newsagencies. Tattersall's communications manager Michael Mangos commented that they do not want to remove any games in Tasmania but the Victorian Government decided on a gaming shake-up and they have to follow the order.
[06-07]
John Sullivan
