Rolling the dice
Sydney organizers may allow gambling to balance budget
Posted: Wednesday February 17, 1999 04:15 PM
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Slot machines similar to this one being played by Nicola Larini of Italy may be used to raise revenues for the Sydney Games. Rondeau Pascal/Allsport |
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Slot machines may take the place of
disillusioned sponsors to help Sydney Olympics organizers fill a
multimillion-dollar budget gap.
Battling a fall in corporate faith because of the widespread
bribery scandal, the Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic
Games has revived the idea of using gambling to reach its revenue
target.
Sydney organizers are more than $130 million short of their goal
of $568 million in sponsorships, part of an overall budget of $1.7
billion.
And while SOCOG president Michael Knight said Tuesday that "You
can run a pretty fantastic Olympic Games" on what his group has
raised, he added: "You can do even better if you can get another
couple of hundred million."
"The first thing we want to do is go out and look positively
and aggressively for that money," Knight said. "If we don't [find
it] we'll make the necessary adjustments."
So, with the Olympics' leading sponsors calling for broad
reforms to retain their financial commitment to the games, SOCOG is
looking again at legal gambling to help plug the gaps.
John Moore, the marketing official in charge of finding the
missing millions for SOCOG, has floated the idea of slot machines
installed in clubs with a percentage of profits going to the
Olympic organizers.
Moore said any such link between gambling and the games would
have to carefully walk the line between tackiness and valid
fundraising technique.
"We don't want Olympic rings on [the machines]," Moore told
The Australian newspaper Wednesday. "The various products that fit
into recreational gambling, we've had a look at."
In October, Knight said there was a "fine line here between how
you raise revenue and how you also protect the integrity of the
games."
Slot machines were raised as one possibility then and received
guarded support from IOC executive board member Jacques Rogge.
Rogge said gambling on the games was not allowed but that sports
in many countries were funded by lotteries and that was valid.
The New South Wales state opposition, engaged in a pre-election
battle against the government, seized on the rehashed idea.
"I'm calling on them to announce whether or not this is a
serious proposal or whether, as it seems, it's a suggestion from
somebody who knows little about gaming," opposition gaming
spokesman Richard Bull said.
Slot machines in clubs and bars earn about $22,100, according to
government figures. It would take 6,000 machines sending all their
profits to SOCOG to make up the shortfall.
SOCOG is expected to name two new sponsors after its monthly
board meeting Thursday -- some rare good news for an Olympic
community overwhelmed in recent months by the scandal centered on
Salt Lake City's successful bid for the 2002 Winter Games.
Knight rejected criticism of SOCOG's budget structure by
International Olympic Committee marketing director Michael Payne
and said he had no plans to back off a $65 million profit-sharing
deal with the Australian Olympic Committee.
Payne was Tuesday that SOCOG should consider plowing the profit
back into the budget, automatically filling half its revenue gap. .
Knight said the deal was done and Payne should accept that.
"I would have thought that Michael Payne would have had enough
on his plate with IOC problems without giving Sydney gratuitous
advice," the SOCOG official said.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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