It was seen lately that around a billion dollars were raised from Victoria's auction of poker machine licenses. It was assumed that the raise would be more.

It was seen for the first time that venue owners were forced to bid for the ten year licenses for 27,500 poker machines.

It was expected that the raise from the auction would be between $1 billion and $3 billion whereas the money that was raised was $981 million. It was also noticed that most of the licenses were sold at the reserved prices.

Gaming Minister, Tony Robinson did not say anything regarding the outcome but accepted that the Government could have raised more money. He also added that the Government had a few controls in place in gaming policy and they could have made more money.

According to Mr. Robinson, Victoria was the first state to implement an owner operator poker machine model.

"The auction outcome does represent a new era of gaming in Victoria. And it is one in which the easy profits of the duopoly in years gone by will no longer be seen", said Mr. Robinson.

He added that the process had been a mess whereas for the big operators it was a jackpot.