Poker Company in Trouble

November 15, 2008

There is an issue with Tabcorp in that they are being accused of offering their rival money to abandon a bid for a poker license. According to the Herald Sun, Tabcorp offered Clubs Victoria a $5 million down payment and $1.5 million over ten years for them to walk away from a poker license.

The paper says that they have copies of the emails that were sent from Tabcorp to their rival asking them to step away from the poker deal. Due to the emails, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has launched a probe into the poker deal to see what was going on.

Supposedly CEO Elmer Funke Kupper of Tabcorp offered the deal to the Victorian company in exchange for the support of the company when it came to poker. According to Club Victoria, they were to “publicly support the retention of the controversial Tabcorp-Tattersall’s pokies duopoly since overturned from 2012.”

Kupper told the company that if they bid for the poker license the deal that he was offering would be null and void. When approached, Kupper told police that one had nothing to do with the other. They said that they had made the offer but it didn’t have anything to do with the poker bidding process. Tabcorp has rejected all allegations that they have done something illegal.

The ACCC has declined to comment on the poker case, but a team of investigators had spent about three hours with the company yesterday, and they have been asked to release certain documents. The company maintains that the Victorian company is simply trying to slur their name during the poker bidding process.