Bikie clubs (roughly speaking, social clubs that have a slot on the org chart for a sergeant-at-arms) are the political equivalent of pro wrestling "heels" - the Iron Sheik, the Undertaker, larger-than-life theatrically gifted evildoers whose function is to be booed while making the hero look good. or signup to continue reading Nobody has a good word to say about them, and they'd feel insulted if anyone did. I'll say this for bikie gangs, though: their clubhouses don't have poker machines.
That's one form of harm where they come out well ahead of your average RSL. And there are a lot more RSLs than there are bikie clubs. We know that - lots and lots of it.
I'd give examples, except that it'd be fairly pointless because nobody actually attempts to deny it. We've just decided, collectively, to shrug our shoulders and look the other way. Against this, clubs with pokies are heavily taxed and contribute buckets of money to the government's bottom line.
In addition, they're supposed to balance out some of the harm they do to the local community by returning a chunk of the takings (in Victoria, for example, 8.33 per cent) in the form of donations to "community benefit". And when I say "local", that's a straightforward geographic expression: one study found that "people who live closer to pokies venues are more likely to gamble and are more likely to experience serious financial and mental health consequences", which is not, as far as I know, true of bikie clubhouses.
Before your dom.