is an Australian company with interests in
Gaming and
Wagering . It was formed through the privatisation of the
Victorian Totalizator Agency Board (TAB) in
1994 . The TAB ran all off-track betting on
Horse Racing , greyhound racing, and harness racing in Victoria, as well as on-course
Totalizator betting. Since privatisation Tabcorp has diversified into other forms of
Gambling . 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 separate 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.
- 2003 (13 November): merger of Jupiters Limited and TABCORP Holdings Limited forms TABCORP1
- 2000 (28 February): AWA Limited taken over by Jupiters Limited2
- --- 1988 (13 January): Amalgamated Wireless Australasia Limited changes name to AWA Limited3
