Carlton Blues' savage pokies grab

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POKIES king Bruce Mathieson is plotting a Carlton coup that will strip Richmond and the Western Bulldogs of a fortune in gaming.
Mathieson, a former Blues director, stunned the Tigers and Bulldogs when he revealed he would transfer two hotel leases controlled by the AFL clubs to Carlton.

Richmond will lose the bluechip Royal Oak Hotel in the heart of Tigerland, while the Victoria Inn at Williamstown will be lost to the Bulldogs.

Both pokies venues are owned by the powerful Mathieson/Woolworths venture.

Richmond could be forced to hand over the keys to the Royal Oak within months.

The 80-machine venue - known as the Tiger Bar because of its meeting place status among Richmond faithful - contributes hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to club coffers.

Carlton and Mathieson are believed to be planning to redirect at least one other venue's profits to the Blues in a move that could set up the club's financial security for years to come.

Blues chiefs declined to comment yesterday, saying nothing had been finalised.

Both Richmond and the Bulldogs confirmed they had been informed their leases would not be renewed.

"We are not impressed with it, but we move on," Dogs chief executive Campbell Rose said yesterday.

The Bulldogs recently won permission for a new gaming venue in Edgewater, about 2km from the Dogs' recently renovated Whitten Oval headquarters. The Mathieson/Woolworths venture also manages the Dogs' pokies at the Bacchus Marsh Golf Club.

But the Tigers, who operate a less profitable pokies venture at Wantirna, must quickly come up with ways to replace the crucial Royal Oak cash stream.

The Mathieson moves come as the league's 10 Victorian-based clubs prepare to splurge up to $50 million on a complex auction of pokies licences in a bid to maintain ownership of their existing poker machines.

AFL clubs control 1253 pokies at 20 pubs and clubs - about 6 per cent of Victoria's 27,500 machines, the entitlements to which will all by up for grabs in the auction that ends on May 10.

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