Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Neil Chatfield. As Chairman of Aristocrat Leisure Limited, it's my great pleasure to welcome you to Aristocrat's 2023 annual general meeting. We are delighted to be able to welcome shareholders back to our office in North Ryde in Sydney, our first in-person meeting since 2020 February. I'd like to also extend a warm welcome to those watching this meeting via the webcast. We will provide an archived copy of today's webcast on our website. I'd like to start the meeting by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, the Wallumettagal clan of the Eora Nation, or Eora people, and pay my respects to elders past, present, and emerging.
I now request that all mobile phones be turned off, and please note that the taking of photos, video, or using any recording devices is not permitted. Thank you very much. For your safety, I'd like to draw your attention to the emergency exits. These are located on the right when exiting this room. Should an emergency arise which requires an evacuation, staff will be on hand to assist you. I note that it is now shortly past 11:00 A.M. and that this is a properly constituted meeting. I'm informed that a quorum is present, and I formally declare the 2023 annual general meeting open. I would like to thank those shareholders who submitted questions ahead of today's meeting. We will respond to those questions during my address, the CEO's address, or over the course of the meeting.
Let me now introduce to you the board of directors and the company secretary who are with us on the stage today with me. Trevor Croker, our Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. Kathleen Conlon, Chair of our People and Culture Committee and a member of our Board Audit Committee. Philippe Etienne, a member of our Regulatory and Compliance Committee and People and Culture Committee. Pat Ramsey, our lead U.S. director, Chair of our Regulatory and Compliance Committee, and a member of our Board Audit Committee. Bill Lance, who was nominated in October last year and appointed as a director last month. Bill is a member of our Board Audit Committee and Regulatory and Compliance Committee. Arlene Tansey, Chair of our Board Audit Committee and a member of our Regulatory and Compliance Committee. Sylvia Summers Couder , a member of our Board Audit Committee and People and Culture Committee.
Kristy Jo , our Company Secretary. We're also joined today, both in person and via the webcast, by a number of our executives. I'd also like to welcome A.G. Burnett, an independent member of our Regulatory and Compliance Committee and former chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board. We also welcome Mark Dow and his colleagues from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the company's auditors, who join us today. Mark is available to answer questions regarding the audit of the financial statements. Before we move to the formal business of the meeting, there are several procedural matters to which I draw your attention. This is a shareholders' meeting. Only holders of the company's securities, their attorneys, proxies, and authorized company representatives are entitled to vote, ask questions, and provide comments at this meeting.
Admission cards have been issued to each attendee, and only those holding blue cards are entitled to both vote and ask questions. I would also note that as advised in the notice of meeting, per the Corporations Act and our constitution, that the appointment of a proxy by a shareholder does not prevent that shareholder from attending the meeting. If after lodging the proxy, the shareholder decides to attend the meeting, the authority of the appointed proxy to speak or vote on behalf of the shareholder is suspended while the shareholder is present. We will be conducting a poll on each item of business requiring a vote, after each discussion on each resolution, we will display proxies received. I now declare the poll open on resolutions one to eight on your notice paper, shareholders can vote at any time before voting is closed.
The poll will remain open for five minutes after the close of the meeting to allow you to finalize your votes. For those with blue voting cards, the voting boxes are on the back of your card. If you require any assistance entering your vote, representatives of BoardRoom, the company's share registry, are here to assist. BoardRoom is appointed to act as scrutineers, and Geoff Noonan from BoardRoom is appointed as the Returning Officer for the purposes of the poll. For those who need to leave early from the meeting today, completed blue voting cards can, at any time during the meeting, be placed into the ballot boxes being held by staff of BoardRoom at the door where you entered this meeting.
I'm holding open proxies in my capacity as chairman, and it's my intention to vote all available undirected proxies against resolution five and in favor of all other resolutions. Once we come to question time, if you'd like to ask a question, please proceed to one of the microphones. Please show your admission card, open your question with your name and the organization or shareholder that you are representing, if any. We will endeavor to answer as many questions from shareholders as we can at the meeting, and I would ask shareholders to restrict themselves to no more than two questions per resolution. Questions must be directed to me as chairman of the meeting. Before I move to the resolutions to be considered today, together with Trevor, I would like to provide some commentary on the strategy, operations, and financial results of the company.
Fellow shareholders, I'm pleased to report that the 2022 financial year was another positive one, with Aristocrat Group achieving a record financial performance. Your company delivered a high-quality result built on an effective implementation of our established growth strategy and the caliber of our people and culture. Your company has established itself as a truly global organization with an excess of 7,500 people around the world, licenses in over 300 jurisdictions, and a reputation for leadership across our markets. While we continue to make great progress in providing innovative and highly valued solutions to our customers and players day to day, we maintain an unwavering focus on executing our company strategy to ensure we can deliver for you, our shareholders, superior long-term returns.
Over the year, the business faced many challenges, including, of course, the terrible conflict in Ukraine, the impacts of COVID on markets and supply chains, the policy shift from central banks and political volatility across a number of key markets. The performance delivered despite these obstacles demonstrates Aristocrat's growing operational depth, resilience, and capability, along with high team engagement, vibrant people first culture, and our ambition to lead our industries in sustainability. I'd therefore like to begin by expressing my thanks and appreciation, and that of the whole board, to our people around the world. Their commitment to our customers, players, communities, and to you, our shareholders, was impressive and fundamental to the performance and progress delivered over the year.
A group profit result of almost AUD 1.1 billion for the year was 27% higher in reported terms and 20% higher in constant currency terms compared to the previous corresponding 2021 result. On a fully diluted EPS basis, growth was also strong, increasing 25% in reported currency. Operating cash flows of over AUD 1.2 billion was 6% below the prior corresponding period , mainly due to the strategic decision to increase inventory levels in response to COVID-driven supply chain disruptions. This helped the gaming business fulfill orders during the year, contributing to market share growth and a strong operational performance. Throughout financial 2022, the group continued to implement its disciplined capital allocation framework.
After fully funding growth initiatives and returning cash to shareholders through dividends and an on-market buyback program, Aristocrat finished the year with AUD 3.8 billion of liquidity. Today, we announced the board's decision to extend the current buyback program to allow up to a further AUD 500 million in shares to be bought back. Aristocrat continues to generate strong cash flow, and this is a prudent step, providing the business with appropriate flexibility to continue to pursue a mix of returns to shareholders while also investing in strategic acquisitions and organic growth initiatives. Your board is focused on efficient and impactful capital allocation. Our investment priorities and ambitious growth plans have not changed. Our balance sheet and liquidity provide full optionality for Aristocrat to invest both organically and inorganically in the period ahead. Aristocrat remains highly proactive in pursuing opportunities.
We will continue to assess options on a clear investment criteria basis in support of your long-term interests and the pursuit of an optimized balance sheet. We delivered resilient operational performance in financial 2022 through a sustained focus on people, product, and capability. We continued to invest in competitive portfolios and performance in our two established global operating business units, Aristocrat Gaming and Pixel United. We also launched a third business unit, Anaxi, as part of a strategy to enter and grow in online real money gaming or RMG. Trevor will say more shortly on the encouraging progress made in that regard, and we'll also share more on the operational aspects of the result. I wanna pause here and acknowledge that we meet today on the one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
This will be a day of somber reflection for many of our people, and indeed people around the world. At the outset of the crisis, our thoughts, decisions, and actions have focused on protecting our people in Ukraine and their families. As we've shared previously, around 3/4 of our approximately 1,000 staff in Ukraine have been willing and able to relocate to safer locations within the country or abroad. Aristocrat offered comprehensive support for these relocations, along with wellbeing resources and financial, legal, medical, and other assistance. We also acted to protect our business. We leveraged capacity from across the Pixel United team to minimize operational impacts and established four new offices in global game talent hubs to support our strategy and accommodate people relocated from Ukraine.
By the close of the 2022 financial year, our business had no presence in or exposure to the Russian market. This built on our earlier decision to cease operations of our mobile games in Russia. Aristocrat will continue to actively manage what is a fluid and challenging situation in the best interest of our people, and in a way that ensures that we ultimately emerge an even stronger and more resilient business. The thoughts of all of us remain firmly with our Ukraine colleagues, particularly on this day. I also want to recognize the efforts of our executive leadership, and particularly the Pixel United team, who have worked tirelessly in supporting our people impacted by this terrible conflict.
Effective action on ESG issues is critical to Aristocrat's vision of being a vibrant business operating within robust industries that deliver benefits to our stakeholders, to our shareholders, and all stakeholders over the long term. We therefore continued to expand our sustainability efforts over the course of the 2022 financial year. Once again, I encourage all shareholders to review the disclosures in full via our group website. Turning firstly to responsible gameplay or RG, which is one of the most fundamental of our obligations. The business delivered a raft of new RG initiatives across 2022 as we continued to mature our program and added further resources to our specialist global team. RG considerations are fully integrated into our enterprise risk management framework.
A range of activities, including mandatory training, built further awareness and engaged our people in the task of promoting RG in all we do. In our gaming business and in our social casino portfolio, we launched additional initiatives to enhance player information and choice and explore the applicability of new technologies. Shareholders will be aware that cashless technology in EGMs has attracted significant attention in Australia in recent months. We are proud to have achieved support for an Australian first trial of cashless gaming technology in New South Wales, including RG, new RG functionality in partnership with a major customer, the New South Wales Government and the regulator. This trial represents several years of work on part of our teams and millions of Australian dollars in investment, and was launched in market during 2022.
It was proposed by Aristocrat as part of our long-standing commitment to undertake such trials, working together with customers and regulators to bring forward new RG product options. We look forward to the trial's completion and the assessment of the independent researcher who was appointed by the regulator in line with the usual mandated product development process in New South Wales. Trevor will share more details on our comprehensive approach to RG shortly. During the year, we also pledged our support to the target of increasing the proportion of women in senior leadership across Australia's largest companies to at least 40% by 2030. Female representation across our top two executive levels increased further over 2022 to 37.5%, maintaining momentum towards our goal.
This effort was supported by new initiatives to promote female leadership more broadly, including the Ready to Rise program. More than 500 employees are participating in this 12-month career development program built specifically for women across our organization. We're also pleased to launch the Aristocrat Families Hub, which delivers 24-hour global access to a wide range of resources, webinars, and wellbeing coaches to support all employees with family or caregiving responsibilities. The company also made significant progress in cybersecurity and privacy in 2022, with additional investments made in deepening our capabilities and further lifting maturity in both areas. We focused on updating policies and practices, delivering tailored training, information, and awareness-building activities across our people throughout the group. In privacy, new technology was introduced to facilitate the creation of mandatory records of processing activity consistent with best practice.
Our 2022 privacy program maturity was assessed as exceeding our target for the year based on a globally-recognized assessment framework. In cybersecurity, we continued to build resilience in the face of increasing cyber risk globally. The business ran multiple tabletop exercises, adopted a broader range of technologies and capabilities, undertook third-party penetration testing, ensured single sign-on and multi-factor authentication was in place for all users, and expanded threat intelligence and bug bounty programs, among other measures. The company also took further steps in responsible sourcing by rolling out enhanced anti-modern slavery training and reporting. We were gratified to receive an A rating in Monash University's most recent assessment of the modern slavery statements of the ASX 100. We will continue to drive progress in this important agenda.
In 2022, we implemented an environmental management platform that will help us set science-based greenhouse gas emission reduction targets by the end of this calendar year. We also expanded our emissions-related disclosures and implemented a roadmap of actions in line with the TCFD recommendations and our existing commitments. Finally, we were encouraged by the further lift in our global people engagement score to 8.7 for the year. This places Aristocrat in the top quartile of technology companies globally. Your board remains determined to ensure the company is able to attract, motivate, and retain the strategic capabilities required to deliver our plans and the full potential going forward. My board colleague, Kathleen Conlon, will address this further in her remarks as chair of the People and Culture Committee later in the meeting.
Throughout the year, the board remained committed to maintaining high standards of effective governance arrangements. Areas of governance focus included board and executive succession and renewal, strategic guidance, and project governance as we entered into RMG and considered issues arising from the conflict in Ukraine, particularly around the safety and wellbeing of our people, cybersecurity, and geopolitical risk. I would refer shareholders to our corporate governance statement for full details. In summary, Aristocrat made important progress across our ESG agenda over the year, demonstrating increasing involvement of our full global team in this effort, as well as the supportive engagement of our customers, players, industry partners, regulators, and investors. Your board met frequently throughout the year with a number of face-to-face meetings and immersion sessions held in key global locations. This allowed us to receive direct feedback from stakeholders and effectively oversee the business' strategy, culture, and governance.
The board has also continued its structured and rigorous succession and renewal process, prioritizing U.S.-based director recruitment as previously flagged. U.S. operations contribute the majority of group revenue, employ the bulk of our people, and offer our largest current growth opportunities. It is vital our board reflects the geographic profile of our operations and strategic priorities. In this context, Mr. Bill Lance was nominated to the board in October last year. Bill is a Native American tribal leader of national standing in the U.S. with a long career as a senior business leader at a major gaming operator. Bill will further strengthen the board's mix of relevant skills, knowledge and experience, particularly in the areas of U.S. gaming experience, customer perspectives, responsible gameplay, government relations, and executive leadership. I welcome Bill to his first Aristocrat AGM, and I'm delighted to have a candidate of Bill's caliber standing for election today.
As you will be aware, the board unanimously supports his election, and Bill will address the shareholders later in the meeting. I'm also pleased to share that advanced discussions have taken place with a further US-based director candidate. We are hopeful of proceeding with a director appointment in the near future and look forward to providing more information on this at the appropriate time. Aristocrat's resilient performance provided directors with the confidence to authorize a fully franked dividend of AUD 0.26 per share in respect of the period ended 30 September 2022, resulting in an AUD 0.52 dividend for the full year. This represents a material increase on the AUD 0.41 per share authorized in the 2021 financial year, and is an appropriate recognition of shareholder support.
In summary, Aristocrat delivered high-quality performance over the 2022 financial year, with strong revenue and gross profit growth reflecting sustained investment in top-performing product portfolios, differentiating capabilities, increased operational diversification, and business resilience. I wish to particularly thank my board colleagues and senior management for their contribution over the year. Once again, I also express my admiration and gratitude, and that of the whole board, to our employees. Finally, thank you to your shareholders for your ongoing support and confidence in our potential. It's now my great pleasure to pass to Trevor Croker, CEO and Managing Director of Aristocrat, to provide further commentary on operational performance in the 2022 financial year and in relation to the business strategy and priorities over the coming period. Thanks, Trevor.
Thank you, Neil, and welcome everybody. Thank you for joining us here today. I'll start by summarizing the key features of your company's strong performance over the 12 months to 30 September 2022, including group financial results. I'll make some further comments on the operational performance and strategic priorities for the period before commenting on year-to-date trading and addressing the outlook for the balance of 2023. As Neil mentioned, our performance for the year demonstrated the ongoing execution of our successful sustainable growth strategy. Once again, we focused on investing in competitive product portfolios to drive market share gains. We also continued to invest in strategic adjacency, including our build and buy strategy to enter and scale in the online RMG market.
Revenue of over AUD 5.5 billion was 18% higher in reported terms, 12% higher in constant currency compared to the prior year, driven by exceptional momentum in the Aristocrat Gaming Americas business and above industry performance across key gaming segments and mobile genres. Our EBITDA margin expanded to over 33% and was underpinned by resilient profitability at Pixel United. The group delivered net profit before amortization of AUD 1.1 billion, representing a profit improvement of over 27% in reported terms and 20% in constant currency compared to the prior year. The group's balance sheet was further strengthened with a net cash position of AUD 564 million and liquidity of AUD 3.8 billion as at 30 September 2022.
Early in the period, we completed a AUD 1.3 billion equity raising in connection with the Playtech acquisition, which we discussed at last year's AGM. The business subsequently refinanced our debt, achieving better terms, extended maturities, a more diversified capital structure, and competitive pricing underlying our ability to support our long-term growth aspirations. At the same time, $1.1 billion in debt repayments were also made in the year, including $250 million , which was repaid in September 2022. Free cash flow was applied to fund our growth plans, while AUD 660 million in surplus cash was appropriately returned to shareholders in line with the group's established capital allocation framework, as Neil outlined.
I'd also highlight that both NPATA and EPS performance in 2022 exceeded our 2019 financial year results by approximately 20%, underlying the group's post COVID recovery. Focusing on what we can control has long been a touch stone of our strategy. This again was instrumental to our performance in the reporting period as we navigated numerous geopolitical, macroeconomic, and market-specific challenges. Throughout 2022, we also expanded key strategic skill sets and capabilities, including through the appointment of Hector Fernandez as CEO of Gaming and Mitchell Bowen as CEO of Anaxi. Post-period end, Sally Denby was appointed chief financial officer, and our chief compliance officer was elevated to the executive leadership team. These appointments underline the depth of leadership talent and robust talent pipeline at Aristocrat.
During the year, Aristocrat expanded a number of graduate and specialist recruitment programs, stood up new creative studios and centers of excellence to further fuel our growth. We also made significant progress against our ambitious ESG commitments and deepening our shared values and people-first culture across the year. I echo Neil's comments on our ongoing efforts to support and protect our people in Ukraine, and express my admiration for their incredible resilience, particularly on this difficult anniversary. I acknowledge and thank all those within the Pixel United business and in other teams across Aristocrat who have been delivering support to our people over the past 12 months and continue to do so with great energy and compassion. I also wanna thank all of those who have worked so hard to protect and indeed strengthen our business through this period, despite the challenges.
I'd also like to add to Neil's comments on the topic of responsible gameplay, or RG. We have continued to invest in RG in cooperation with customers, regulators, industry partners, and others who share our vision of a vibrant and sustainable gaming and hospitality industry. Local initiatives in 2022 included the launch of the Australian first cashless gaming trial in New South Wales, along with the further rollout of FlexiPlay functionality in key jurisdictions. This progress builds on years of investment in responsible gaming product innovation. We share the community's legitimate concerns about the impacts of excessive gameplay on individuals and families, along with a desire to see the highest levels of industry probity to stamp out all illegal activity.
For these reasons, we have consistently stated Aristocrat continues to support the development of potential cashless solutions and other RG tools in both word and deed. At the same time, we know there is no single solution. That's why in 2022, we also continued to strengthen links with gaming research and treatment services, providing more training, education, engagement among our own people, and continually looked for ways to improve the integration of RG into core systems and processes across the business. Our multifaceted responsible gameplay program is part of our DNA at Aristocrat. We see leadership in this area as critical to delivering our group strategy, as well as a fundamental expression of our company values. I can assure shareholders that we will continue to make an active and genuine contribution on this topic, along with other material ESG priorities.
I'd now like to make some additional comments around the operational performance over fiscal 2022. Aristocrat's portfolio of scaled world-class gaming and Pixel United assets continued to grow and diversify off the back of innovative and high-quality execution from our dedicated and passionate teams. Exceptional performance was delivered in North American gaming operations and global outright sales, despite supply chain disruptions and mixed operating conditions across key markets. Pixel United delivered a resilient operational performance in a challenging environment as overall mobile bookings moderated post the COVID-19 driven peaks seen in the prior period. We made significant progress in executing our strategy to scale in online real money gaming with the launch of the Anaxi business unit and increased organic investment in product and technology to support the development of our growing iGaming product suite.
Online RMG is a material growth and diversification opportunity that will provide further channels for the distribution of Aristocrat's world-leading content. Over the course of 2022, we invested strongly in product and technology, along with innovation, operational excellence, and customer engagement. Design and development, or D&D, spend remained at market-leading 12% of group revenues in 2022, or AUD 667 million at the upper end of our 11%-12% target range. This was applied to further strengthen our product portfolios and support our entry into the online RMG as noted. Over the same period, we invested $480 million in user acquisition to drive mobile portfolio performance, representing 26% of Pixel United revenue.
This is at the lower end of our 26%-29% target range, as we rigorously managed our games' release schedule during the year. Turning to address Aristocrat Gaming in more detail. Total segment revenue and profit grew over 31% and 39% respectively, reflecting continued penetration of high-performing games and cabinets and exceptional performance in North America. In the Americas, revenue increased almost 25% to $1.7 billion, while profit increased over 31% to more than $956 million. This reflected Aristocrat's gaming operations install base growing to over 59,000 units at an 8.5% lift in combined fee per day to $55.78 over the year compared to the 2021. America's outright sales increased 66%, which, with average selling price up 8% over the same period.
The performance of Aristocrat's portfolio continued to strengthen, achieving around 1.4 x floor average over the period, well ahead of competitors and pleasingly with significant growth in our footprint. We also continued to lead in terms of the industry's most anticipated products, including our forthcoming NFL-themed titles. The business also continued to expand in attractive adjacent markets in North America with growth in VLT and Washington CDS, and entry into the Kentucky Historical Horse Racing and New York Lottery markets. In the ANZ Gaming segment, revenue increased by 15.5% to over AUD 461 million, while overall profit increased by 3.5% to AUD 157 million.
ANZ Gaming contributed around 8% of Aristocrat revenues in 2022, again underlining the extent of our transformative growth in recent years, particularly in North American gaming and in our global mobile publishing business, Pixel United. Pixel United delivered share gains despite a challenging second half environment, with bookings of over $1.8 billion and segment profit of $65 million. Sorry, $605 million. This result reflected effective and dynamic UA allocation, increased contribution from Plarium Play, and prudent cost management. Plarium Play, our proprietary commission-free platform, accounted for around 26% of Plarium revenues over the period, compared to 20% in the 2021 fiscal year.
Continued investment in LiveOps , features, and new content, combined with effective player engagement, was reflected in share gains across key genres, with the business outperforming the market and maintaining its position as a top five mobile publisher in tier-one Western markets. Average bookings per daily active user grew 11% compared to 2021 as a result of a focus on daily active user quality. In addition to moderating demand in the overall mobile market, Pixel United was also affected by disruptions stemming from the conflict in the Ukraine, including the proactive decision to cease operations in mobile games in Russia during the year. This market historically contributed approximately 3% of annualized Pixel United bookings, primarily in the Plarium portfolio.
Pixel United minimized operational impacts and further strengthened and diversified its business by leveraging increased capability across its teams, opening new studios in Poland, Spain, and Canada, and successfully closing Plarium's Russian studio and moving all work to an exclusive third-party studio based in Europe. I'll now make some comments on the year-to-date trading and the outlook for the balance of our 2023 fiscal year. Group performance in current financial year has been encouraging and in line with our plans to date. Gaming has started the year positively, particularly in North America, where our major customers' capital commitments remain supportive. From a macroeconomic perspective, we are closely monitoring possible impacts on consumer sentiment from elevated inflation and higher interest rates, and the evolution of supply chains. We are well-positioned to continue working closely with our customers and suppliers to manage these uncertainties.
Pixel United's performance has been resilient. As I outlined earlier, in the second half of the previous financial year was more challenging period for our mobile business as revenue growth slowed across the industry. While this base effect is impacting our year-on-year growth comparisons, the overall mobile games market has continued to consolidate without any further overall deterioration evident at this time. Moving now to Anaxi. We announced earlier this month that Roxor Gaming, an acquisition that we announced in September last year, had closed successfully and earlier than originally expected. Roxor Gaming remote gaming server and content publishing technology will accelerate Anaxi's strategy to grow in the iGaming market. Roxor is live in the U.K., New Jersey markets, with Ontario also going live in the first quarter of this year.
In addition, we recently signed a content agreement with BetMGM, which we shared last week, and expect to announce a further agreement shortly, delivering on Anaxi's market entry objectives that we shared in November last year. We anticipate a number of other agreements over the year as the build-out gains momentum. Anaxi is also launching a first-of-its-kind mobile on-premise solution for tribal gaming operators. This product allows patrons to connect with and play Aristocrat's Class II gaming content via their mobile device while on trust land. Anaxi's mobile on-premise solution will be live with the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma in the first quarter of this year. We're excited by the opportunities ahead for Anaxi and look forward to keeping you updated on our progress. In terms of outlook, we repeat our outlook commentary.
The full year 2023 modeling inputs and the medium-term objectives provided at the time of our 2022 results presentation in November last year. NPATA growth will be skewed to the second half of the year, reflecting Pixel United's stronger first half profitability in 2022. For clarity, I'll restate our November guidance that Aristocrat expects to deliver NPATA growth over the full year to 30 September 2023, assuming no material change in economic or industry conditions, reflecting continued strong revenue and profit growth from Aristocrat Gaming, underpinned by market-leading positions and recurring revenue drivers in gaming operations. Lower growth in bookings and profit from Pixel United compared to recent years, and further investment in Anaxi to support our online RMG ambitions. In summary, the 2022 financial year was another successful one for Aristocrat, highlighting the benefit of the consistent implementation of our growth strategy.
Focusing on what we can control, our strategy is anchored in improving our own business competitiveness, no matter what external challenges we face. I want to again highlight and thank the incredibly talented team we have across all parts of the Aristocrat business for their energy, hard work, commitment, and care for each other throughout 2022. I'd also like to acknowledge the effective working relationship that exists between our board and management teams at Aristocrat, and thank the board for their contribution across the year. I'd finally acknowledge and thank our customers, players, and of course, our shareholders. I wanna assure you that everyone at Aristocrat is fully focused on delivering the high-quality performance you rightly expect from us, and which we know we are capable of delivering. Thank you, and I'll now pass back to Neil.
Well, thank you very much, Trevor. I'd now like to turn to the formal business of today's meeting. The poll was declared open earlier in the meeting, and as a reminder, if you're eligible to vote at this meeting, you would have received a blue voting card, and the voting boxes are on the back of that card. You can submit your votes at any time before I close the poll. I now move to the business of the meeting. The first item of business is to receive and consider the financial report for the 12 months ended 30 September 2022, and the reports of directors and the auditor. Please note that no vote is required on this item of business.
At this stage, I'd be pleased to take any questions or comments in relation to the auditor's report, the financial report, or the director's report, as well as any questions that relate to Trevor or my addresses. Are there any questions in relation to director elections? The company's remuneration policies and the proportional takeover provisions will be considered when we come to the relevant resolution. I now open the floor for questions and discussion. Are there any questions?
Chair, I'm Stephen Mayne . I'm a shareholder. Just a couple of minor procedural things first. Thank you for committing to publish and archive into the webcast of the meeting. That is much appreciated. I'm wondering if you can just go a little bit easy on this banning everyone from using their phones. I mean, people are having to leave the room to send a text to tell their wife they're running late or something. Can we just agree that is no filming, no photographs, so that people can just send a text to their wife if they want to? 'Cause it is a very extreme. When you're live webcasting a meeting, it's very extreme to a sort of exclusive brethren style, you can't look at your phone for two and a half hours.
I'm just wondering if we can just agree to that.
Yeah. Thanks, Mr. Mayne . It's not a negotiation.
It's a polite request.
situation. If I can finish.
Yeah, sure.
It's a situation where it can be particularly disruptive to other shareholders, and of course, we'd like all shareholders to enjoy the same opportunity to participate or enjoy the meeting. Obviously we won't be, we won't be dragging you out if you, if you pick up your phone, like you might happen, when you see these cameras in the street, when you're driving a car. Let's be sensible about it, yeah?
Okay. Good. All right. Just on the two-question limit, I hope that can be two questions at a time, as opposed to sort of...
I think that would be preference.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Also just one last thing. You've mentioned that I gave my proxies to former Senator Xenophon. I think you've mentioned, you've basically said I have to leave the room for him to speak. You gave me no notice of this. This has never happened before. You probably should have emailed and said that you were gonna try that on. A shareholder can appoint two proxies, and you know that, and I'm just asking you if you can save the bizarre thing of me having to leave the room so my proxy can speak.
I think we've pointed it out, Mr. Mayne , because it's actually a constitutional and a corporations law position. Obviously, as chairman, I have an opportunity to be patient and allow that to occur. I know that, I think Mr. Xenophon is it? Is your first appointed proxy, and I know that he will be respectful as a meeting. I don't think that extends to a whole raft of questions. You know, we'll be tolerant as long as everyone's respectful.
Yeah. That's the plan. We'll all be very respectful. My first question, when our CEO, Trevor Croker, handed over the Chair of the American Gaming Association in November 2021, the AGA gloated that a key achievement during his two-year term was, and I quote, "Amplifying gaming's voice to the public and policymakers through communications and research, and most importantly, building gaming champions on Capitol Hill." My question is: Was hiring Lachlan Elliott, the son of then New South Wales Police Minister David Elliott, in August 2021, an example of Aristocrat building gaming champions in Australian parliaments?
Earlier this year, David Elliott came out with the ClubsNSW campaign when he said, "I'm keen to find where in the world the cashless card has worked." Chair, this morning, you've been quoted in the press in The Australian saying that you're going to, quote, "We don't get involved in politics. We leave politics to the politicians." Which is it? Are we building champions in parliaments, or are we leaving politics to the politicians? Why did we hire the police minister's son? Was that an attempt at influencing policymakers in New South Wales?
Your second question? Or you.
It might be supplementary, sir.
Okay. Okay. Thank you. There's obviously a number of parts to the question. In relation to AGA, the American Gaming Association, we were very pleased that Trevor was able to participate in that organization. We've made tremendous strides in responsible gaming and ESG. In fact, Trevor was elevated the ESG in that organization and across gaming, I won't say single-handedly, but he was an architect of really elevating ESG. In relation to our recruitment processes, you would realize that we're not going to debate or talk about individual employees here.
What I can say, though, is that all of our employees, and our recruitment process is one that is very vigorous and, of course we do background checks, and we understand that our employees at some point in their career, earlier or later, will be subjected to the licensing arrangements, which require a lot more in-depth background checks. I'd have to say that. All of our people sign up. They sign up for a code of conduct and a way of behaving within this organization, and we monitor that, and we have a lot of processes in place which give us really good insight into how our employees behave, and we're very satisfied.
In fact, as you know, I've been involved with a number of organizations over the years, and I've to say that the practices of recruitment and checking in this organization is as good as I've seen.
Thank you. My second question goes to the cashless gaming technology. When we met at Surry Hills in Sydney, on January 10th, you provided me with a copy of this press release that Victor Dominello issued in May 2024, as an example of the company's proactiveness on cashless gaming. This press release predicted that the trial would start in September 2021. It didn't start until October 2022. This press release you were furnishing. It actually was 13 months later. I'm keen to understand why it took so long to get cashless gaming up. You've currently got 36 EGMs at a Newcastle venue, for the trial. In that same venue, you can also play with cash.
The cashless solution that the company seems to be contemplating is one that applies to everything in a venue. You can go in there and flash your phone at the pokies, put AUD 1,000 on, buy a AUD 100 round of drinks, buy a 10-year membership.
Mm.
shout your mates a dinner. It sounds like manna from heaven for big spending clubs who just want people to flash their phone and go for it. What New South Wales is contemplating with Premier Perrottet is massively different from that. It is a mandatory government-issued card, which is the only way you can play. You can't do anything else with it but for gambling. Gamblers can set a limit. The government is in control of it. It's just a world apart from your trial. I'm keen to understand if you agree with that. I'm keen to hear from Trevor on this. Are you supporters of the Premier's plan? Please also comment on what Tasmania has proposed. Are we working with the Tasmanian government for a government-issued card, AUD 100 the maximum a day, by the end of 2024?
That is the nearest regulatory train coming at us. Are we gonna embrace it? Finally, on cashless, of the 200,000 poker machines that are out there in Australia, are any of them cashless? Do we have a cashless one in the showroom here? Of our 100,000 poker machines out there, are any of them cashless at the moment? Of the AUD 7 billion-AUD 8 billion a year that gamblers are currently losing nationally on 100,000 machines, do you have an estimate as to how much of that is cash and how much of it is electronic transfer? Thank you.
Well, again, thank you for your question. Perhaps I'll sort of start with the principle, and I think it's, it is appropriate that Trevor, who has intimate knowledge of these trials, can then speak. Part of the, I think the press release, Steven, that perhaps you should have said the press release that we gave you came in conjunction with our sustainability report, which is very detailed around responsible gaming. To be very clear, our cashless offering and the trial is not just about, you know, turning something to a phone from a piece of paper. It's about a raft of responsible gaming pro-products around that, around that solution. We're working really constructively with the customer.
We've worked with the regulator and the government. As we said in our speeches, there's an independent researcher that's been appointed by the regulator. We will continue to work with that group. You mentioned policy setting that's been advised by the current government. You know, we don't have detail behind that. What we know is how we're approaching this and what functionality that we're trying to bring to what is a pretty complex set of technologies. Trevor, would you like to just talk about some of the detail perhaps of that trial and perhaps the timeline? I think it's useful.
The timeline I think is relevant because our commitment, as you say, actually dates back much more than 2022. Trevor.
Yeah. Thanks, Chair. Thanks for the question. We proposed a cashless solution to the New South Wales regulator and government in 2020. The process for innovation in gaming goes through a trial process, which is the established process that New South Wales use to trial new products, and we support that, and it's a process that they put in place. We proposed this back in 2020. The time that it's taken to get to market is a consequence of many different factors. Because it was a trial, it required regulatory, it required government approval, it also required technology, and it also required customer acceptance. The time it took to take to market was a consequence of many different factors.
What I would say to you is we started this conversation back in 2020 with a solution to provide a cashless solution for the market, that we've taken that as a consequence of the way that we continue to approach our RG opportunities as to how can we help advance responsible gameplay in the industry. How can we work with stakeholders, being our customers, being the regulators, and being the government at the same point in time? We did come to the market with this pro-process and this solution. There is more than the number of machines you see operating with that now in the venue, and we are continuing to support that. The trial will run as per defined by the government, and the outcomes of that trial will be administered by the government as well.
Might I also just add, Trevor, I think we did say it in the speeches, but there's a significant investment has been made, and there's additional investment was just authorized, I think, a few days ago as well, Trevor. You know, this is a really serious endeavor for us, and we think a really important one. Any other questions in relation?
Yes. Carol Limmer. Good morning, Chairman.
Mm.
I'm representing the Australian Shareholders' Association and hold proxies with approximately 117,000 votes. Firstly, thank you to you and the CEO, MD, for your addresses to the meeting. Also, I would like to comment on your annual report and notice of meeting being very comprehensive. Some areas, for example, remuneration, have been enhanced since last year. Aristocrat is involved in many jurisdictions and obviously very conscious of ESG, of governance, risk and compliance management, and there's extensive good coverage on those aspects. I'd also particularly like to note the support of your people in Ukraine, so thank you for that. A question. Just following on from Mr. Mayne's questions and the comments on that, is it likely that cash...
It's obviously likely it's going to be come into being in New South Wales, and possibly other states in Australia as well. Is there any likelihood that you're aware of in areas other than Australia, and also what your future commitment is in that area, for example, further investment, for cashless gaming machines?
Well, thank you very much for your question. As always, we were delighted with the engagement with the Australian Shareholders' Association, which has been a long one. In terms of our commitment and investment, absolutely. We continue to invest heavily. This is a... When we talk about responsible gameplay in this organization, it's not about a small pocket of people that sit in a room and we don't let them out. It's about the whole organization. It's across all of our products, all of our people, and there's enormous involvement. Trevor, would you like to just have a shot at that?
Yeah. Sure. Thank you for the question as well. This has been a long-standing agenda item at Aristocrat, we know our position, what was required to be a leader. We have invested in cashless, we have brought innovation to the table, we have brought new products like FlexiPlay to the table. We continue to look at ways, as the chairman said, we're using our innovation, our code of conduct and our product design includes responsible gameplay. We have responsible gameplay in part of all parts of our organization as a way to bring innovation to the table, to work with our customers, to work with the industry and the regulator on how we can continue to move forward in this space.
Thank you. One other question. This annual general meeting is live and also being webcast. Shareholders, proxy holders attending the webcast, as I understand it, cannot vote, nor lodge questions during the meeting. I understand there may be an extra cost involved, will you consider extending the voting questions to webcast attendees in the future?
Yeah, thanks very much for the question. I think all the major companies are kind of dealing with this as we've come out of, out of COVID period, where there was no shareholders in the room, to getting back to sort of a bit more normal. Let me say, like people coming into the office, we really encourage face-to-face and, you know, the fact that so many shareholders turned up today, we're really gratified for the interest. We will look at it. It is evolving. You'll probably be aware through your other research that a number of public companies have adopted the same approach as us.
I guess there's one small issue has been, has really been the technology. If you had have been here last year with us, trying to do this virtual meeting, it was very complicated, and we sort of all had our fingers crossed. Absolutely, we will look at the. I'm sure this is going to evolve. I, you know, thank you for your question.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Other questions? Okay.
Good morning, Chair. Nick Xenophon here as a proxy, and good morning to the board as well.
Welcome, Mr. Xenophon.
I just want to ask you a question in relation to your General Manager of government and industry relations, Mr. Anthony Ball, one of your most senior executives who engages with politicians, key stakeholders in your business. When he wasn't working with you, when he was working with Clubs Australia , as I understand it, Mr. Ball sent me a text message in the early hours of the 18th of March, 2018, just after the state election when I was unsuccessful as a candidate running on a strong anti-gambling, anti or gambling reform platform, notwithstanding 19% of the statewide vote. Mr. Ball sent me a text. It said, "Sorry, Nick. We will kill you all off." What I call the kill text. Given Mr.
Ball's very important role in your business to engage with stakeholders, to engage with government, with politicians, with key stakeholder groups, do you have a comment to make about Mr. Ball's kill text? Do you consider it was inappropriate? Will you be asking Mr. Ball to make an apology in writing for that text, for that kind of behavior?
Thank you. Thank you for the question. Do you have another question, Mr. Xenophon, or.
I thought one at a time, you know.
Okay.
I'm.
Okay. Well, I'm.
If that's okay.
If you'd like to take a seat, that'd be great. As I said, in relation to Mr. Mayne's question a little earlier, I'm not going to enter into any discussion about individual employees. I will say that the code of conduct and our expectation of our employees is a very high standard. And, you know, clearly, I think you're talking about a period that goes back beyond our employment, which I can't really comment on. As I said previously, we're really thorough with our recruitment processes, and it's as good as I've seen elsewhere. We're very comfortable and absolutely we stand behind our employees.
If I may ask a direct supplementary to your answer.
Sure.
Does that mean that if one of your key employees involved in government and industry relations sent a text to a stakeholder, saying, you know, "Sorry, so and so, we will kill you all off," that would be in breach of the code and something that you would regard as completely unacceptable on behalf of Aristocrat?
In our employee-
Yes
... you mean?
Yes.
Yeah, I would agree with that.
Thank you. You don't think it's appropriate that Mr. Ball ought to apologize for what he said several years ago, given that now he's your ambassador, if you like, in government and industry relations?
I wouldn't agree with that construction. It's not for us to debate that.
Okay. You're not gonna have a chat with him and say, "Hey, mate, don't do that again"?
Do you have another question?
Yes, I do.
Yeah.
Yes, I do. Could I just ask a issue about this, about a major operator of poker machines in this country? The Australian Labor Party is the only major political party in the democratic world which relies significantly on gambling to fund its operations. The Canberra Labor Club and the Randwick Labor Club between them have built up net assets of AUD 120 million, running seven pokies venues in Canberra and Sydney, which drained almost AUD 40 million from gamblers in 2022. Aristocrat have 50% of the Australian pokies market. You are the dominant player. Does Aristocrat supply more or less of 50% of those machines in those Labor Party poker machine venues?
How do you manage the obvious sensitivities of dealing commercially with a political party, the Labor Club associated with the Labor Party that run these poker machines? Does Aristocrat generate the same 34% profit margin on machine sales to the ALP as they do with other venues on average? Do you think that the dominant political party in Australia, which controls six of the eight jurisdictions that issue pokies licenses ought to be in the pokies business, particularly as they have a different view on the cashless gaming system card in New South Wales, where they're resisting that for a mandatory card. Given your statement to The Australian that said, you know, "We're not in the business of politics. We leave politics to politicians.
Yeah.
How do you manage where one of your customers, assuming you supply them with poker machines?
Yeah.
...is also the dominant political party in this country? How do you manage that conundrum?
Thanks again for the question. As an overriding statement, we build this company on integrity in all of our dealings, whether that would be with government, regulators, customers, our people, and other stakeholders. I don't specifically have the detail of those particular contracts or anything like that, Trevor, but I think, can I hand to you? I'm not sure you'd know exactly or as well, but I think perhaps just a discussion on how we go about engaging with customers who we would all treat the same.
Yeah. Thank you, Chair. I don't have the detail of those contracts, and I don't have the detail of the share, but, you know, we are, as you say, we're a larger share of the install base, so I'll acknowledge that. What happens at a customer level is at a customer, we deal with the customer who is a customer as we deal with all our customers, and we provide them a solution, we provide them a product, and we do it within the legal framework of what we're allowed, be it through the regulatory approval process and the commercial terms that are structured. I can't give any more detail than that. All I would say to you is I think it's a conversation that is not a case of a manufacturer providing a product to a club. It's a broader conversation.
Any other questions on this, on this point?
Good morning, Chair. My name is Troy Stolz. I have a proxy here this morning.
Okay.
Good morning to the board.
Welcome.
Thank you. I have a question. In your summary earlier, your address this morning, you mentioned industry probity as during your statement. I became aware of a document recently in regards to an organization called CCM Travel. They organize study tours. This isn't Aristocrat that is involved on this occasion. My question will come to that in a minute. They contact club and pub CEOs, senior managers. There's initiatives around the study tours. The information I came across the other day goes to the heart of probity. Buy four machines and receive a free ticket to Vegas study tour worth about AUD 15,000 .
There was another one, buy three EGMs, new machines, and receive a ticket to the upcoming State of Origin, two nights at the Hilton, et cetera. My question is it practice for Aristocrat to offer similar offerings to a competitor here? If you have so, would have you done so in the last 12 months? Thank you.
I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be our practice, but as Trevor just alluded to. Trevor, have you got a observation?
Yeah. there's strict policy guidelines as per the New South Wales regulation, and all of the... each state have regulations, and any activity that's done has gone through our compliance department. it is approved by our compliance department in compliance with the state regulations.
Thank you. I have one more on this.
Sure. After you.
Just jump in while I'm here. Aristocrat supply around 95,000 of Australia's 190,000 installed poker machines across 5,000 venues based on about 50% of the national market share. This means gamblers lost more than AUD 7 billion in our Australian machines in 2022, when total losses hit a record AUD 15 billion. What proportion of that do you believe is cash? Is it right that we still have thousands of machines installed in pubs and clubs across New South Wales, where the preload limits in those machines is up to AUD 10,000, AUD 7,500 , and then obviously AUD 5,000 with the new ones?
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you. I certainly am aware that there's a range of ages of EGMs across the country, where we might have sold a machine to someone, you know, multiple years ago. It's either in the back room not working, or it's on the floor. It's very difficult for us to tell. Trevor, did you have an observation there?
My only comment would be is we make a machine, it can take tickets, it can take cash. That's as per regulation, it's compliant with all the regulations in each of the jurisdictions. I can't tell you the amount that's taken cashless. It is just. It's provided as per the regulations.
Thank you.
Thanks very much. Are there any other questions in relation to this item? Steven, does this relate to this resolution or this?
Yes. Yes
...this item of business?
Yes
Are we moving on?
Yes. No, this item of business. There's one more.
One more. Okay. Thank you.
I did have a read through that sustainability report that you provided at our January 10 meeting, and I agree it is.
Thank you.
...comprehensive.
Thank you.
I was impressed to note that with the customer survey.
74% of the customers believe that Aristocrat is the best when it comes to responsible gaming. Everyone else was pretty much in single digits. I'm just interested, we're an AUD 22 billion company making over AUD 1 billion a year. I noticed on page 90 of that sustainability report that we've given AUD 3 million over 15 years to the Cerebral Palsy Alliance. I know Anthony Ball has long been, I think, on the board of that, so clearly that must have been a relationship going back when he was on the board at ClubsNSW. We were pumping cash into his favorite charity.
My question is, if we've got AUD 3 million for the Cerebral Palsy Alliance, over that same 15-year period, gamblers have lost over AUD 100 billion on our poker machines, and hundreds of them have committed suicide. Funding Cerebral Palsy is noble, but have we ever donated any money to the surviving relatives of an addicted gambler who bankrupted their family and then took their own life after overly engaging with our dangerous products?
Thanks for the question, which is rather emotive, of course. We're really proud of our relationship with Cerebral Palsy, and it's not just the company donating, this is our staff. There's a whole range of people who have passion about this. My advice is that Anthony Ball has no relationship with that organization, so I'm not sure how that sort of question came up, but I think yeah, I think just let's sort of leave it there. Okay. If there are no other questions, thank you, and we'll move to the next item of business.
The next five items of business relate to director elections or reelections, and involve each director or candidate making a short address to the meeting. Each candidate will be allocated three minutes for this purpose. Resolution one is the reelection of Philippe Etienne as a director. Philippe was nominated to the board of Aristocrat in October 2019 and elected at the 2020 annual general meeting. Biographical details for Philippe, including relevant qualifications, skills, and experience, and other directorships, are set out in the notice of meeting. I'd now like to ask Philippe to say a few words in support of his reelection.
Thank you, Chair. Well, good morning, everybody, I can't quite believe it's already been three years since you elected me to your board. They've been three remarkably dynamic years marked by very significant events to which our company has had to respond, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine conflict. How your company has responded has provided me with considerable insight into the true culture of the organization. I've seen and have been incredibly impressed by management's unwavering commitment to Aristocrat's people-first values, which have guided every, often very difficult decision. I mean, it's not unusual in my experience to see companies espouse such values, but it's less common to see them in practice when times get tough.
The last three years have also enabled me to gain significant insight into the industries in which Aristocrat operates globally and the talent and technology that underpins our competitive advantage. You know, from the bio and the notice of meeting, that I've been an ASX director for a number of years, now across a diverse set of industries. You also know that in exec life, I've been responsible for international business activities in the highly regulated currency and mining explosives industries where uncompromising process and behavioral standards are essential. I believe that that background has enabled me to bring a set of skills and perspectives to your board that complements the extraordinarily impressive skill set of my fellow directors.
I remain highly committed and motivated to serve your interests, on the board of Aristocrat, and look forward to doing so if you choose to reelect me. Thank you.
Thank you, Philippe. Philippe's reelection has the unanimous support of directors. Are there any questions on this resolution? I might take the question over here. Oh, no. Not a question. Okay. Go ahead.
Sorry, it stuck with me. My question to Mr. Etienne is this. The Gaming Technologies Association is the main pokies industry lobby group and your executive, Anthony Ball, is the chair. The GTA delivers a annual three-days gaming expo, which your CEO, Trevor Croker, addressed last August in Sydney in front of 7,300 delegates. The GTA website claims that it is, "It acts to champion technology as vital contributor to responsible gambling efforts.
Could Philippe Etienne, please explain what is responsible about having thousands of Aristocrat poker machines across New South Wales pubs and clubs where criminal money launderers can still load up to AUD 10,000 cash into a machine at a time? What is responsible about that? Do you agree with the findings of the New South Wales Crime Commission last year, that landmark report, which essentially said that you need to go cashless, mandatory cashless to stamp out criminal money laundering across New South Wales? Shouldn't there be a product recall on the dated AUD 10,000 cash money laundering machines in the same way a car manufacturer would recall a car when it discovers a safety issue?
A few questions there. It's essentially about the New South Wales Crime Commission, whether you endorse that. As a consequence, do you support, as a director, that you need to go cashless as soon as possible to deal with that organized criminal element of money laundering?
Well, thank you. Thank you for the question. Rather than Philippe answer, I... because this has been a matter that has been before the board, and we've had a deep... Sorry.
Point of order, Mr. Chairman. The question was what to one of your directors seeking reelection. Are you saying it's out of order for Mr. Etienne to answer the question?
I'm not saying it's out of order. I'm answering the question because you need to address me through the.
Of course.
subject question.
Of course.
I'm responding to that. If we get to Mr. Etienne, well, that'll be fine. If we don't, well, that'll be fine also. Okay.
Right. Well, I'm happy to agree with that.
Take a seat, please. You've thrown my thought there. Just give us the question again, just so we're very clear?
No, no. My question relates to the issue that Mr. Croker at the GTA, the annual gaming expo, said in front of 7,300 delegates, quote, that it the GTA website claims that it acts to, quote, "champion technology as a vital contributor to responsible gaming efforts." My question to Mr. Etienne and to you now is, could you explain what is responsible about having Aristocrat gaming machines in pubs and clubs across New South Wales where you can load up to AUD 10,000 cash on each occasion, given that landmark report of the New South Wales Crime Commission just a few months ago that said, this is money laundering, this facilitates money laundering. Given your commitment, your board's commitment to responsible gambling-
Okay.
How can you allow those machines?
Okay.
Why won't you recall them?
No, thanks for repeating it. That's very clear. The New South Wales Crime Commission report was reviewed by the board, and we had briefing on that. I think we've made it really clear in any of the anything you'll hear about this organization is that we condemn illegal activities in and around our business or in our gaming machines. We will support in a constructive way, government regulators and customers to ensure that any illegal activity is cleaned out of our environment.
I think the, you know, throughout the whole organization, we have a very, very strong approach to compliance, regulatory and compliance and dealing with regulators. We have a Regulatory and Compliance Committee that is looking very closely at these items. It's part of our commitment to be a leader. Philippe, I'm not sure. I know you were very, very strong in those discussions and inquiring. Up to you if there's anything you could add.
Yeah, I appreciate the question, and it's a really important issue. I can tell you that the board spends a very large amount of time considering corruption issues, anti-money laundering issues. It's an area of great focus in the board. You probably know that the RBA chose me to come in and clean up Securency when it had its bribery and corruption scandal. This is an area that not only I know a little bit about, but it's an area of great interest and passion. I thank you for your question. I think the chairman's covered it.
I'll just also say that, you know, in our training, and our training starts at the board and into our executives and further down in the organization. AML and CTF training are an integral part of our normal training program.
I'm sorry, Chair. If I just ask a direct supplementary question to that.
Sure, sure.
I appreciate both you and Mr. Etienne, engaging in the question.
Mm-hmm.
The New South Wales Crime Commission was crystal clear. Machines that take AUD 10,000 in cash at a time, I don't think you could hardly say they are for the recreational player. AUD 10,000 in cash at a time.
What is your attitude? What is the attitude of your board to say it is, it is something that is problematic and ought to be dealt with as a matter of urgency, given the New South Wales Crime Commission?
I think we have answered the question. Just to be crystal clear, we work constructively with all the stakeholders, in this case, the regulator, and our government and our customers. Anything we can do to support the eradication of illegal activities, we support. Okay. Any other questions on this one?
Just one question for Philippe. Anthony Ball, our head of government and stakeholder relations and the chairman of the Gaming Technologies Association, nominated by Aristocrat, is quoted in the February edition of the Australian Hotelier Magazine saying the following in his role as chairman of the GTA. Quote, "Our association has a well-thought-out plan for how it can contribute to the long-term well-being of a gaming technology and supplier companies, venues and operators, and all that have a stake in the industry.
The GTA agenda includes increasing stakeholder understanding of our industry, supporting efficient, balanced and effective rules and regulations, promoting technology as an enabler of responsible gameplay, encouraging innovation to meet the player and venue needs, and representing the interests of technology companies, while contributing to gaming industry advocacy more broadly. If we are the leader on responsible gameplay, why are we, I won't say colluding, but why are we acting with all the other less responsible pokies manufacturers through the GTA? Why doesn't the GTA agenda say anything about reducing money laundering by eliminating cash from the New South Wales system? Shouldn't we resign our membership of the GTA and go it alone and out-compete the rest of them in terms of being the best in responsible gameplay? 'Cause I'm very curious as to where is the line on collusion.
You've got eight blokes, and they're all blokes, despite your 40/40/20 HESTA rules. The eight directors of the GTA are all blokes, and they all get together and run these massive trade shows, and every supplier says, "Oh, I can't do AUD 1 bets. Oh, I couldn't possibly do that." You're all colluding and lobbying together. You're acting in concert. If you're the best and they're all terrible, why is your man, and they're all men, leading this lobbying campaign with an agenda which sounds irresponsible and reckless, what I just read? It's all about growth and balance. It's the whole ClubsNSW line, which of course Anthony Ball's using because he was the CEO for 10 years. Shouldn't we just resign this membership? Where is the line on collusion with other pokies manufacturers?
Well, I resent you using the word, collusion, 'cause that's not a word that this company would ever be involved in. Trevor, this technology group might be just interesting to talk about what that group does. We've, you know. In any industry, it's really important that you only take forward all your, you know, just good customers who are not as up to speed with what people are trying to do. You know, it makes sense from our point of view to be involved in and engage in as many stakeholders as we can, and that's what we do. We don't make any apology for that. Trevor, on this, on this one?
I'll just go back to my statement at the opening that said that we're gonna lead in word and deed, and that's what we're doing, is we're providing leadership. We're showing a course and solution towards cashless. We've put FlexiPlay out there, and we continue to share these ideas with the marketplace to continue to evolve our responsible gaming product.
Okay. Perhaps you can get a question later. Proxy received in this, in relation to this resolution are shown on the screen. Resolution two is the re-election of Mr. Pat Ramsey as a director. Pat was nominated to the board of Aristocrat in September 2016 and was last re-elected in 2020. Biographical details for Pat, including relevant qualifications, skills and experience, and other directorships, are set out in the notice of meeting. I'd now like to ask Pat to say a few words in support of his re-election. Thanks, Pat.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you to those who came here to be here in person today and others watching virtually. As Philippe mentioned, due to the pandemic, it has been three years since I've been able to travel to Sydney, and I'd like to emphasize how nice it is to see you and to engage with our employees as well. It's an honor to appear before you for my re-election to the board of directors of Aristocrat. With your support, this will be my third term, so I won't go into too much depth about my background, but I'd like to take a few minutes to give you a brief summary of my experience for those who may be new to the company. I have spent the last 21 years working in the casino and gaming industry.
I began at a riverboat in Joliet, Illinois, when I was studying for my MBA at Northwestern University outside of Chicago. Since then, my gaming career has taken me and my family all over the United States. We currently live in Las Vegas. My consulting and board work allows me to touch virtually all parts of the globe. I've been fortunate to gain experience in all aspects of gaming, from traditional casinos to online gaming platforms, to social and mobile games.
I feel fortunate to work in an industry that offers so many different, interesting and enriching career paths to a diverse group of people, while also being part of an industry that contributes to so many important initiatives for people around the world through gaming taxes and other fees generated. Today at Aristocrat, I'm delighted to serve as the lead U.S. director, the chair of the Regulatory and Compliance Committee, and a member of the Audit Committee. Outside of Aristocrat, I currently serve in a variety of non-executive roles for several other companies, including as the chairman of the board of Codere Online, a member of the Operating Council for Arrow Internationa l, and as a consultant to EPR Properties, among others.
I'm also proud and very relieved to say that I recently finished my seventh and final year as a high school wrestling coach and will stay off the wrestling mats for good. Thank you in advance for supporting my re-election, and of course, thank you for your continued support and interest in Aristocrat. It's been an honor to work alongside Trevor and his impressive management team, and I look forward to continuing to be a part of the Aristocrat board. Thank you.
Thanks. Thanks, Pat. Pat's re-election has the unanimous support of directors, as does his retirement from the wrestling ring. Are there any questions on this resolution?
Thanks, Chair. On page 4 of Aristocrat's Sustainability Disclosures 22 initiative document, which the Chairman provided when we met on January 10th, there's a picture of our CEO Trevor Croker receiving an inaugural award from the American Gaming Association CEO Bill Miller, for quote, "excellence in sustainable gaming." Bill is quoted saying, quote, "Trevor is the definition of a servant leader. He's made ESG commitments central to Aristocrat's global operations. As Chairman of the AGA, he's pushed the industry to do the same. Trevor played an integral role in defining a core ESG priorities for gaming and partnered with the AGA to conceptualize and publish the first ever ESG in gaming report.
This foundational effort, initiated by Trevor, will drive our industry's ESG commitments for years to come. One of the industry's long-term tactics has been to blame the gambler rather than your addictive products, and this all comes back to the term problem gambler. The gambler is the problem. On page 16 of the Sustainability Disclosures 2022 document, it says the following, quote, "In March 2022, Aristocrat provided $125,000 to establish the Oregon Gambling Research Center.
This expands on our existing partnerships with the Oklahoma Association on Problem Gambling, the Illinois Council on Problem Gambling, the National Problem Gambling Helpline, the Gambling Treatment and Research Clinic at University of Sydney, the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling, the California Council on Problem Gambling, the Council on Compulsive Gambling in Pennsylvania, and the National Council on Problem Gambling. As an industry leader, will Pat and the board and Trevor agree to retire the term problem gambler if they're serious, and instead use honest language such as gambling rather than gaming, addiction and gambling harm? Rather than talking about responsible gameplay, it should be responsible product design. In terms of the record, AUD 15 billion lost on Australia's 200,000 poker machines in 2022, the gamblers are not the main problem. The addictive products are the problems.
If you're serious, Pat and Trevor and Chair, will you stop using language that blames the gambler?
Yeah. Thanks, Mr. Mayne. I wouldn't agree that the language that we use does that. You've formed a construction that suits that, I guess. Trevor, would you like just to talk about some of the activities around responsible gameplay and how we've implemented this in our organization?
Thank you, Chair. We consider it responsible gameplay, and it's around how we design, how we create technology and product solutions to protect and to also provide solutions when it comes to games. It's a core DNA part of our organization which involves training across the organization. It involves product development within our product teams at the same time, also partnering with external treatment centers and also researchers to understand a better perspective and to get some lived experiences from that perspective as well. I think, Mr. Mayne, what you said about some of those titles, those titles are defined by the associations they are.
They're not defined by Aristocrat, we talk about responsible gameplay as a proactive approach by us as a culture to contribute to the responsible provision of games in the marketplace in which we compete.
Pat, would you like to just maybe elaborate?
Hello? Oh, yeah. Since Mr. Mayne addressed me, I'd like to respond. I don't dig into the nuances of the word, right? To me, Responsible Gaming is a very serious topic. It's a topic that we all need to address. I think we do that as leaders of the industry. We need to address it up here on this panel. Trevor and his team need to address it. People like you are part of addressing it as well. We all need to work together to make sure that we eliminate the problems that we do know exist in this industry. We're serious about doing that.
Thanks, Pat. Other questions?
Yes, I do. To Mr. Ramsey. Mr. Ramsey, as a wrestling fan, I'm hoping I don't get a metaphorical, Undertaker's Tombstone Piledriver response from you, one of the famous wrestling holds.
It's a different kind of wrestling.
It's a different... Oh, not professional. Sorry, I'm a sucker for World Championship Wrestling. I need to ask you this question. You come from a jurisdiction where it seems that Australian poker machines have been exported to the rest of the world, including in the United States. The Productivity Commission of Australia, the Australian Productivity Commission, back over 20 years ago, produced a comprehensive report on gambling, two volumes. It was seen as the gold standard by researchers around the world. One of their key findings, which was not, in my view, seriously challenged
Then or now was that over 40% of poker machine losses in Australia were derived from problem gamblers. That was one of their key findings, and that was enormous amount of research. Then Treasurer Peter Costello, it was a well-resourced inquiry that academics around the world praised, gold standard, many referred to it as. Given that figure, isn't it inimical to the business model of Aristocrat to substantially reduce problem gambling given what the Productivity Commission said so many years ago, that so much of your revenue comes from problem gamblers? How do you deal with that conundrum? Pat, are you happy to answer that?
Well, I'm not familiar with that report. As I mentioned in my summary, I've been part of this industry and been very passionate about it for 21 years, and I've worked in all parts of it. I'm not familiar with that report. I've read other reports that say problem gaming is 1%, 2%, 5%. I've never heard of 40%, but I don't wanna argue whether it's 1% or 40%. Frankly, I don't know, and nobody knows. What I know is it's an issue, and I've seen it firsthand, and we're serious about working to minimize it and for those who have fallen into that, to help them. That's what I know.
Thanks, Pat. Proxies received in relation to this resolution are shown on the screen. Resolution three is the reelection of Kathleen Conlon as a director. Kathleen was nominated to the board of Aristocrat in January 2014 and was last reelected in 2020. Biographical details for Kathleen, including relevance, qualifications, skills, and experience and other directorships, are set out in the notice of meeting. I'd now like to ask Kathleen to say a few words in support of her reelection. Thanks, Kathleen.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, shareholders. I had the opportunity to serve on your board for nine years. It's been a period of continuous transformation. In this time, we've become the market leader in land-based gaming, created a substantial social digital business, and recently entered RMG. I'm very proud of the market leadership role that Aristocrat has taken in every area of its business, in game development and innovation, but particularly in the investment in ESG, which we've talked a lot about today, and the responsible gaming innovation, partnering with our regulators and taking a leadership role across all of our industries to lead thinking in this area. Having served as the chair of the People and Culture Committee for most of my time on the board, I'm also proud of the new businesses we've created, often by drawing on our deepening internal talent.
This has allowed us to move quickly without disruption and while maintaining broader business momentum. I also reflect on the investment we've made in our people at Aristocrat through the lens of our experience in COVID, and our efforts to support people through the Ukraine conflict. While increasingly diverse, Aristocrat's people are highly engaged and linked by shared values and a drive to succeed. I believe that the next three years will see Aristocrat continue to transform and grow, and I appreciate the opportunity to put myself forward for the next term and look forward to continue to support your company through the next phase of transformation.
Thanks very much, Kathleen. Kathleen's reelection has the unanimous support of directors. Are there any questions on this resolution? Mr. Mayne?
Yes. As chair of the People and Culture Committee, I'd just like to ask Kathleen after this meeting, in light of the comments and disclosures that Mr. Xenophon made about the conduct of Mr. Ball and also the debate about the police minister's son, that she is the chair of the People and the Culture Committee. I'd just ask that she have a look at both of those situations and just ask herself, you know, at a board level, about the optics of both those individuals. I personally think that Aristocrat is trying hard to stay above the fray and be best practice and to lead. There's a couple of issues around those circumstances which I do think sully the reputation a little bit.
I do think you have an opportunity to move on that and surf and continue to surf at best practice and not be tarred by associations with hiring the relatives of politicians or associating with highly combative industry participants with long records of combat, often inappropriate. I've got a more technical electoral question. Kathleen, I think you're the chair of the AICD's Corporate Governance Committee.
Yes.
In regards to this election, Aristocrat's got 50,000 shareholders, none of them were sent the full notice of meeting, unless they rang up or emailed and asked for it. Normally, if you haven't signed up for email, you know, like my late father, he was 95 at the time. He hasn't signed up for email. He just gets a ballot paper saying, "Vote against Stephen Mayne and vote for everyone else." The 17-page notice of meeting wasn't sent out. I think that was voter suppression in that you have refused to properly distribute my message and everyone's message, and everyone see these, by not sending anyone a copy of the notice of meeting. You constructed a very unfair ballot paper.
You've refused to publish a transcript or an archive of last year's AGM, so I still don't know what answers to my questions were given. I'm pleased you've given ground today. There have been some governance issues around how you've run this election. I suspect it's been the chairman's call. I fear it's the old ClubsNSW use every trick in the book thing, 'cause I don't think this would've happened in the past. You have played quite an aggressive game in the way you've constructed this election. I don't think you've conducted it fairly, and I think you've made a very good case for the AEC or some independent body coming in to run contested elections to ensure that all candidates are treated fairly.
You don't go into political elections and see a giant not board endorsed vote against on the ballot paper. You put that in the notice of meeting, but then you haven't even sent the notice of meeting out, and you're the chair of the Corporate Governance Committee at the AICD. Is this what all directors think about fair elections? Just ask you to reflect on that, and I suspect it's the chair, but the board needs to take an interest 'cause I repeatedly asked that you play fairly, and you haven't.
Thanks, thanks for the question. Of course, we the adoption of notices at meetings and the way that meetings are set up is basically a matter for the whole board. I don't think I don't think it's one person. We'll sort of take those take those comments on board. Proxies received in relation to this resolution as shown on the screen. Perhaps you add this one to the next one. Thank you.
If I have a question, I have a question, Mr. Chairman .
Okay. Now you've seen the proxies, then happy for you to have the question.
Thank you, Chair. Through you, Chair. Ms. Conlon , you heard the previous question I put to Mr. Ramsey.
Mm.
The Productivity Commission over 20 years ago, and what was seen as a gold standard report, said over 40% of poker machine losses come from problem gamblers. Do you have a view on that, and do you agree that an effective responsible gambling policy will, of necessity, mean a reduction in revenue because there won't be that level of income coming from problem gamblers?
Kathleen, you wanna take that?
I would echo what Pat said, I mean, what Trevor said. We have brought the cashless technology and other technologies to the government, and we've brought it to the regulators because we do understand that any solution around problem. Any solution around harm minimization will require technical solutions. We do take it seriously. In the time that I've been on the board, it has been an increasingly important topic on the board, and it is one that we spend a lot of time and investment on. One of the things that I would also add to that is that we're spending time with experts and researchers to try to understand what technology will work, that's what we're trying to bring in terms of technology features.
Absolutely we take it seriously, and we will continue to enhance our contribution to the industry and to the regulators in this space.
Thank you. Thanks, Kathleen. Resolution Four is the election of Bill Lance as a director. Bill was nominated to be a director of the company in October 2022 and was appointed effective January 2023. Biographical details for Bill, including relevant qualifications, skills and experience, and other directorships, are set out in the notice of meeting. It's now my great pleasure to ask Bill to say a few words in support of his election. Thanks, Bill.
Thank you, Chairman Chatfield, and thank you, shareholders. I am a fifth generation Oklahoman and a very proud citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, which is a federally recognized tribe in Oklahoma with approximately 76,000 members. Last year, I stepped down after 13 years of the longest-serving Secretary of Commerce for the Chickasaw Nation. During that time, I was responsible for the management of all commercial business enterprises for the Chickasaw Nation. The Department of Commerce has approximately 7,000 employees overseeing more than 60 gaming, hospitality, retail, media, manufacturing, and tourism-related businesses. I was also directly responsible for the oversight of governmental affairs on behalf of our sovereign nation, which included engagement with the federal government and several key states.
In addition to continuing to serve on a number of boards of Chickasaw-owned businesses, I also serve on other boards, including BancFirst, which is a $10 billion community bank that's traded on the Nasdaq. Throughout my career, I have strived to grow the commercial operations of our tribe in order to deliver sustainable benefits to our people and contribute to the broader community. I've seen firsthand the critical role of gaming in transforming tribal economies. I've seen. I've also seen the role of transforming those tribal economies in North America, including supporting sovereignty and helping tribes to make significant investments in employment, education, healthcare, housing, and cultural revitalization of our people. I am strongly committed to sustainability, including in terms of promoting responsible gameplay. By putting our values into practice, I believe Aristocrat is well-placed to deliver performance in the long-term interest of our shareholders and stakeholders.
I'm committed to making a contribution towards this end, and I'm very proud and honored to present myself for election for your board. Thank you.
Thanks very much, Bill. Bill has his election has the unanimous support of directors. Are there any questions on this resolution?
yeah. welcome-
Excuse me, Mr. Mayne . Can I just see if there's any other questions first before you, Sam? Any other questions? Questions? No. Okay, go ahead.
Welcome to the board, Bill, as our newest director. I know you sit on the board of the American Gaming Association with Trevor. I think one of the criticisms of Aristocrat over the years is that they've always been in the bunker when it comes to dealing with their critics. Nick Xenophon's never had a meeting with Aristocrat in 25 years. I spoke to Tim Costello this morning, who's probably the number one campaigner in the space. Never had a meeting with Aristocrat. Andrew Wilkie never had a meeting with Aristocrat. I'm impressed that you're now talking about the board being engaged on responsible gaming, and even the board has been to a few trade shows. In your documentation, you talk about the board having met people with the lived experience of gambling harm.
I suspect all of those people have been brought to you by researchers you've paid for, you know, like the AUD millions you've put into the University of Sydney research center. I'd like you to bring a fresh approach where this board and management team actually sits down with some of your critics. We have to come to the AGM to talk to you. I asked for a meeting with the chairman a while ago, knocked back. I just think it would be better. You are 50% of the market. You started pokies in New South Wales in 1956. You're a gorilla, yet you don't talk to people who disagree with you. I'll ask a couple of years ago how many of the directors had read Natasha Dow Schüll's seminal book, *Addiction by Design*, and I think no hands went up.
Has anyone read it yet? She's a critic. You have read it, Arlene and Sylvia? That's good. All right. Finally, Bill, with that comment about the AGA building champions on Capitol Hill, You're one of the 50 directors, could you just give us some detail about how the AGA goes about building politicians who are champions in the U.S. for the gambling industry? What sort of tactics are deployed to build champions in the parliament in the U.S.?
Thanks for the question. I really would like to set the record straight in relation to offers to meet. I think, you probably do recall a request and I did offer with you and Mr. Costello, and I received no response. You know, let's leave that where it is. Bill, would you like to make some comments?
Yeah, sure. Thank you, Stephen Mayne, for those questions. You know, historically, the American Gaming Association, you know, probably, you know, 10 years or longer, was not inclusive of tribes. I really give the executive leadership, that committee, a lot of credit. Trevor Croker was a part of that transformation in bringing tribes to the table. You know, given that it's the most significant trade association for gaming in the U.S., I'm very proud of that transformation that's occurred within AGA, and we now have tribal voices around the table. I don't think that happens without people like Trevor Croker advocating for tribes. I'm very appreciative of that, Trevor Croker. You know, related to, you know, engaging policymakers, I think it's really just an educational process. You know, we try to educate policymakers.
Take the tribes during the pandemic process and the whole pandemic that we went through. We did mass vaccinations for the broader community. We did mass testing for the broader community. When we go to policymakers, we try to tell them what we do with our resources that are derived from gaming. That's powerful. It's really more centered around education than lobbying efforts.
Thanks. Thanks very much, Bill. Proxies received in relation to.
Mr. Chair.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah.
Sorry. I'd just like to make 1 comment on the board. In the annual report, there's good information in terms of the mix of skills and experience that the various board members have. In terms of diversity, you've got 3 female board directors. I would suggest that Mr. Lance brings another element of diversity to the board. I'd just like to say that. Thanks.
Yeah. Thanks for the observation. I think we've been very clear on our commitment of 40%. As I alluded to earlier, another U.S.-based director will help in that regard, I hope. Mr. Stolz, you had a question?
Thank you. Thanks, Bill. My question is, if Aristocrat, what's the position in terms of lobbying for the slowing down or the removal of cash from our machines? What would be the ultimate impact on Aristocrat if cashless pokies were mandated across Australia? How will that affect the shareholders?
Yeah, perhaps, I can answer that one, Bill. Frankly, we don't know. You know, we've heard today about, different, you know, what does cashless mean? We'll see how this evolves. All we know is that we're really committed to bringing responsible gaming features into and cashless into the marketplace.
No, that's fantastic. Let's hope that comes to fruition as a whistleblower standing here today and on the gambling industry, I think it's paramount that we move forward and all work together.
Look, I really appreciate the point, and we've made it a few times today, is that, you know, this is a, this is a whole of industry. It's, it's multiple parties. It's, it's customers, it's players, it's research. It's, it's manufacturers, it's government...
Yeah.
Absolutely. Regulators. You know, we're to Mr. Mayne's point, and I did appreciate the comment that you recognize that we are making a real effort here and investing, and we will continue to do that. Thank you.
Appreciate it. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Xenophon ?
Mr. Chair, if I can ask Mr. Lance a question, directly because of his long experience, with the industry in the United States. Are you aware of any cashless, poker machines, slot machines, as they call them, in the United States and in particular, within the tribes, with all those 60 or so, venues? Can you tell us about that and your experience of that, and what you can bring to the board in the implementation of, mandatory cashless machines of the type, the system of the type advocated by the New South Wales government?
Thanks for the question. Bill, I'm sure you're very well qualified to answer this.
Yeah. It's a great question. You know, as in the Secretary of Commerce role with the tribe, you know, the pandemic and the public health issues really presented a lot of challenges, right? There was a real national push, and there was a big push in Oklahoma, specifically for cashless technology, primarily from a public health perspective. Then you start talking about the responsible gameplay measures that can be put and embedded in the technology, which we talk about all the time as a board. We have stood up a small pilot study with the Chickasaw Nation. To my knowledge, it was the only cashless technology.
It was with another manufacturer, another provider, but we continue to refine that technology today, and the people that use it are adopting to it.
Thanks, Bill. Proxies received in relation to this resolution are shown on the screen. Resolution five is the election of the non-board endorsed candidate, Mr. Stephen Mayne, as a director. Mr. Mayne has submitted himself for election as a non-executive director of the company. Mr. Mayne has provided biographical details, qualifications, skills, and experience, which are set out in the notice. The information provided by Mr. Mayne has not been independently verified by Aristocrat. I'd now like to ask Mr. Mayne to say a few words on his election.
Thanks, Chair, I appreciate you not putting the proxies up before I speak. I know I'm gonna be, maybe 1%-3% probably, if I'm on a good day. I was triggered to run by the company's refusal to provide a transcript or a recording of last year's AGM. I submitted 16 questions online, and then I had to go and do something else. I've dropped my son somewhere or do something, so I couldn't actually watch it live. I still to this day don't know what happened. I just thought that was extraordinary that a public company with 50,000 shareholders can suppress what happened to the public AGM, even when someone's put in 16 questions.
I thought I'd smoke them out by running for the board and then offered a withdrawal if they agreed to put it all up, but there was no sign of that happening. I went through with the tilt, and I ran on three things, which as I mentioned earlier, weren't sent to most shareholders. The three things I was running on was that they fully embrace cashless, as in the New South Wales Premier's proposal, not the flashy card and spend cash on anything, flash your phone proposal, which is being trialed in Newcastle. That they get with the program of, you know, publish your AGM webcast and full AGM debate.
Also that they dissociate from the AHA and ClubsNSW, because basically my sort of reading of the play is that Aristocrat with its 50% market share is the huge gorilla behind the scenes, and it's the clubs and pubs that do all the heavy lifting in terms of influencing the political debate, making the huge donations and those sorts of things. Aristocrat's got a great policy of not making any political donations. The Australian Hotels Association, after Daniel Andrews suddenly legislates new 20-year licenses in 2017, despite saying nothing about that in 2014 from opposition. Lo and behold, the next year, the AHA donates AUD 761,000 to the Victorian ALP. In my view, it's just disgraceful. That's now illegal in Victoria. You can't donate in Victoria.
Losses last year in Victoria up 12% to a record AUD 3.5 billion. The poorest areas like Melton and Brimbank up 25% in a single year on that legislation, which shouldn't have been passed. After it was passed, the AHA, a key partner of ours, gave AUD 761,000 to the party that did them a massive favor. It's just politics for sale. It's bad governance. I want Aristocrat to be completely clear of all that, to get out of the Gaming Technologies Association, to not hire people like Anthony Ball, who sent wild late-night texts to senior politicians using the word kill.
I mean, Senator Xenophon, 10 years in the Senate, nine years in the South Australian Parliament, the number one gambling advocate in terms of a politician, and your head of government relations is sending text messages saying, "We'll kill you all off in the end." I mean, what sort of an industry tolerates that sort of behavior? The current ClubsNSW CEO has been sacked, Josh Landis, for talking about the Premier's faith. What are we doing with the former 10-year CEO sitting in our company? I ask you to reflect on whether it's an appropriate person for you to associate with the way he carries on. The AUD 20 million that ClubsNSW spent in 2010-2011 killing off the Xenophon-Wilkie-Gillard mandatory pre-commitment system that was put up. That's why I ran.
I wanna get you into the debate, out of the shadows, because you don't meet with people. My take, I want you to start engaging with the debate and not associating with those people who refuse to get with the program and become a world leader on responsible gaming. A world leader. Someone's gotta go out there and change 200,000 poker machines and get the cash out. Get your market share up to 60% because you're the best party to do it. My take is you're all sitting there saying it's all too hard, and you're all working through the GTA, and gambling harm's going up. Australia's AUD 25 billion a year, 40% worse than the next bet, next country, and it's doing enormous harm. I hope you shift on your language.
You, you got the message on the language. Talk about your responsible product design, talk about reducing gambling harm, talk about managing addiction. Rather than giving cash to the University of Sydney for researchers into cerebral palsy, think about the families that lose their loved ones through suicide. Compensate some of the victims. The small businesses who get their money stolen, often by addicted players who then blow it on the pokies. Victims of crime never get any compensation. You're making AUD 1 billion a year. You're worth AUD 22 billion. You can spare some cash for the damage you do, not just a few favorite charities and paying researchers at University of Sydney and meeting people they put up. Meet some real people, meet some critics, and lead the pack and do more. ’Cause you've got all the power, you're a global player, you've got all the technology.
You could be a force for good in reducing harm and addiction while still making a good profit for the shareholders. I hope you take on board some of those suggestions. I'm happy to answer any questions, but I've probably spoken too much, so I'm happy to call it a day.
Okay. Thank you. The board has thoroughly considered Mr. Mayne's nomination in the context of the board's skills matrix and its composition. It's reviewed Mr. Mayne's skills and experience against those already present and represented on the board, and those required to support the execution of Aristocrat's strategy and evolving needs. The board has also considered the extent of Mr. Mayne's experience in director and senior management positions of sophisticated, globally operating companies of a scale and complexity similar to that of Aristocrat. Having regard to these matters and the best interest of the company, the board has determined not to support Mr. Mayne's election. Are there any questions on this resolution? No? Thank you. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were going out. I'm sorry.
Thanks for making me feel insignificant.
No, it certainly wasn't the intent. I thought you were going to the side, sorry.
Yeah. No, yeah, I'm sure a lot of people have been leaving. Just through you, Chairman, I would like to ask Stephen Mayne if he's aware of the responsibilities of a director to act in the interests of all shareholders. A question would be how he would have intended to do that if he is elected.
Yeah. Thank you. Well, we did explore those matters with Mr. Mayne during the sort of process of discussion, but we got some satisfaction on that. Mr. Mayne, would you like to respond?
Yeah, look, it's a good question. Look, I did appreciate getting an hour and a half with the Chair and then a 10-minute, 15-minute Zoom with the full board. I've run for 55 boards, you don't normally get face time with the full board. Trevor did ask the question about what the customers would say if I was elected. You know, pubs and clubs who I criticized. I did make the point that I'd be one out of nine. I wouldn't have the power to go and blow up club-pub relationships. I would recognize the responsibility to maximize profits. I pointed to Star Entertainment, where they totally stuffed up their governance and responsible gambling, their shares have gone from AUD 6 to AUD 1.30.
My advice is get way ahead of the curve 'cause the tsunami is coming, and you need to be best practice, clean skins, not tarnished. I thought I could help with that, keep you ahead of the curve. Me having me on the board would add to that reputation that you're not, you know, with some of the other more colorful players in the industry. I appreciate I'm gonna be captain 1%, and so it's all academic.
Thank you. You have another question?
I'd just like to say that I think that that was a complete failure to answer the question. The question was on what he would do for the other shareholders.
Mr. Mayne, would you like to respond?
Well, as one of nine on a council, I know that one hand in the air can't do anything. It's the collective decision-making. I would be one voice on the board. I would contribute to the debate. I would make sure that we do a webcast and have online voting. I would push for transcripts. I would make sure the notice of meeting is sent out. I would dramatically improve communication with shareholders as a start if I was on the board. But, you know, I'm not gonna overstate my ability to suddenly triple the dividend or something.
Okay. Okay. Thanks for, thanks for the questions. Thanks for the answers. Proxies received in relation to this resolution are shown on the screen. The next two resolutions relate to people, culture and remuneration. Before we turn to these items in detail, I'd like to invite Kathleen to say a few words as Chair of our People and Culture Committee, including providing an overview of remuneration related matters in 2022. Kathleen.
Thank you, Chairman. I'm pleased to provide this overview of our remuneration outcomes and other related matters. The full details, as usual, are set out in the 2022 Remuneration Report, as well as the explanatory statement in the notice of the AGM, which I encourage shareholders to review. With regards to the 2022 performance, remuneration outcomes during the reporting period reflected the excellent performance of Aristocrat's executive leadership team, delivering the Group's strong financial results as the Chairman and CEO have detailed today. As I said, I'm proud that this was delivered by drawing on internal talent pools, all the while keeping business momentum alongside with benchmark employee engagement levels.
On the LTIs, EPS growth targets were not met over this COVID disruptive period, but our TSR ranking, together with strong delivery of executive individual performance, resulted in the LTIs vesting at a relatively modest level, 64% for those executive KMPs with 2020 grants. Based on the year of solid performance, the Board approved STI outcomes of the executive KMPs between 119 and 133% of target. I would now like to give some context on our global market positioning and its impact on our remuneration frameworks. Aristocrat is a genuinely global company in its structure and operations. We're one of a small group of ASX-listed companies that derives its majority of its revenues from overseas markets. Approximately only 7.6% of revenue is derived from the Australian gaming business in FY 2022.
Our global digital business, Pixel United, contributed almost half of the Group's revenue. We have over 7,500 employees based globally in over 20 locations, and the majority of our executive leadership is US-based. Accordingly, the business must attract and retain leaders in global markets with technology and global management skills. The REM framework for US technology industry employs high rates of share-based competition, 2-3 times our grant levels, and they're generally unhurdled, invested on a regular basis, sometimes even monthly. We believe that the balance of quantum, 3-year performance periods, and 100% of rights that are hurdled with an appropriate mix and weighting of financial and non-financial metrics is about right. Although we do encounter some challenges in securing talent with this structure, we are conscious of the need to strike the right balance across the US and Australian frameworks.
This year, we introduced a minimum executive shareholding policy and will continue to monitor our performance and remuneration frameworks to ensure that they support the Group's strategy, delivery of sustainable shareholder value, and fair and equitable outcomes for our people. In conclusion, the Board believes that the Aristocrat remuneration framework is robust and fit for purpose to support further growth and performance of our globally scaled gaming content, technology, and mobile games. Your Board also believes that the depth of talent across all levels of our business and our ability to continue to attract great people and the leadership of an engaged and established executive team will help us position, sustain our market position and continue to deliver high-quality execution. I will now hand back to the Chairman who will outline the shareholder resolutions and recommendations to you for your approval. Thank you.
Thank you, Kathleen. Resolution Six is the approval for the grant of performance share rights to Trevor Croker, our Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, under the Long Term Incentive Program. The notice of meeting sets out in detail the manner in which the Long Term Incentive Program operates and the basis for participation by Trevor. The performance share rights will only vest if vesting criteria are satisfied at the end of the performance period, and the Board sets rigorous targets to ensure shareholder value has been achieved. Are there any questions on this resolution?
Chair.
Mate.
Didn't see the proxies on the, on the REM report. I know there's been some pretty material votes against the LTI grant in recent years. Could you just maybe inform the meeting if there has been a material vote against either of the pay resolutions? When disclosing the outcome of all resolutions today, would you be able to follow the lead of the likes of Metcash, Altium and Myer and several other companies which have included how many shareholders voted for and against? There's 50,000 shareholders. Have 1,000 voted? Have 5,000 voted? You've got the data. With the scheme meeting, that happens so, you know. I know I'm on point 3.2, but I would have done better on a shareholder measure. Interested to see how many have engaged on REM.
Has there been a material vote on REM, and will you go the extra mile on the voting data disclosure with all the resolutions?
There's Kathleen, I wouldn't say there's been a material vote against the REM.
No, we've had a consistent response.
Yeah.
There are some shareholders who don't like the structure of our LTI because it's not consistent, fully consistent with Australian frameworks, and that continues to be a challenge. There is a strong.
A strong belief that we are consistent in what we do, we explain what we do. Therefore, we've agreed to disagree with some shareholders. Mostly, they're supportive.
Thank you. Proxies received in relation to this resolution are shown on the screen. Resolution seven is the adoption of the Remuneration Report. The annual report for the 12 months financial year ended September 30, 2022, contains a Remuneration Report which forms part of the Directors' Report and sets out the remuneration policy for the company and its controlled entities for 2022, and reports the remuneration arrangements in place for non-executive directors and executive Key Management Personnel during the period. The vote on this resolution is advisory only. However, the board will take the outcome of the vote in consideration when reviewing our remuneration practices and policies. Are there any questions on this particular resolution? Thank you. Proxies received in relation to this resolution are shown on the screen.
Resolution A is a special resolution and relates to the reinsertion of the proportional takeover approval provision in clause 26 of the company's constitution. As a special resolution, it requires approval from at least 75% of votes cast. A proportional takeover offer is one where the takeover offer made to each shareholder of the company is only for a portion of that shareholder shares. Under the Corporations Act, proportional takeover approval provisions expire three years from adoption and may then be renewed or reinserted for a following three years. These proportional takeover provisions were last renewed at our AGM three years ago, and the board is seeking shareholder approval to reinsert these provisions into our constitution. The proposed proportional takeover provisions are identical to those previously adopted by the company.
Directors consider it is in the best interest of shareholders to reinsert the proportional takeover approval provisions in the constitution for a further three years. The notice of meeting sets out details of the advantages and disadvantages of the proportional takeover provisions. Are there any questions on this resolution? No. Thank you. Proxies received in relation to this resolution, noting that it's a special resolution, are shown on the screen. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our discussion on the items of business. If you have not already done so, I now ask you to submit your vote. If you're uncertain about any of the voting procedures, please raise your hand and boardroom staff will be pleased to assist you. I now formally close the meeting subject to the finalization of the poll, which will close in five minutes.
The results of the poll will be announced via the ASX and on the company's website later today. Thank you for your attendance and ongoing support of the company. Thank you very much.