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Tabocorp Holdings is an Australian gambling company. The company was formed through the privatisation of the Victorian Totalizer Agency Board in 1994. The government agency ran all off-track betting on horse racing, greyhound racing, and harness racing in Victoria, as well as on-course totalizer betting, but the company has expanded well beyond this. It now has four major areas of activity:- It owns and operates four casino-hotel complexes; Star City Casino in Sydney, the Conrad Jupiter on the Gold Coast, Conrad Treasury in Brisbane and Jupiters Townsville in Townsville. In 2004, these provided 41% of earnings.
- It operates poker machines in many venues across Victoria; with it and Tattersalls the only two companies permitted to run the devices. It has a joint venture with Tattersalls to run keno games in hotels across the state. It also operates a poker machine monitoring service in Queensland. In 2004, 26 % of earnings came from gaming.
- It continues to operate off-course and on-course totalizer betting throughout Victoria and now New South Wales (through the acquisition of its privatised NSW equivalent Tab Limited) Betting is now available from many pubs as well as the traditional seperate TAB betting shops, and the TAB offers bets on many sports activities other than horse racing. 28% of earnings came from wagering.
- It operates Sky Channel , a national horse racing television network which broadcasts into TAB outlets and hotels, as well as a small racing-oriented radio network. These provided 5% of earnings in 2004.
Tabcorp's operations employ about 12,000 people. Net profit after tax was approximately $471 million AUD in 2003-04, on revenues of about 2,500 million AUD.
Gambling, and especially "pokies" remain a somewhat contentious political issue in Australia, and like all gaming operators the efforts of Tabcorp to grow its gaming revenue can be politically controversial. Anti-gambling activists have noted that Tabcorp and its competitor have increasingly moved their allocated quota of poker machines around the state to maximise revenue, thus resulting in concentration of machines in working-class areas.
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