Tatts will no longer call Melbourne home from next year, ending a 59-year link and taking about 40 executive positions with it.

Tatts will no longer call Melbourne home from next year, ending a 59-year link and taking about 40 executive positions with it.

The decision was unveiled within 48 hours of the company losing its shared control of poker machines in Victoria.

It had made billions of dollars since 1992 and now threatens to sue the state for $590 million in lost pokie earnings.

Chief executive Dick McIlwain declared that was a coincidence and blasted the mindset of both the former Brumby government and the current Baillieu Government towards the gaming industry, accusing them of treating Tatts Group "shabbily".

"Maybe familiarity breeds contempt," Mr McIlwain said.

He said Victoria had stripped Tatts of its ability to generate its prime revenue in the state by taking the poker machine duopoly off it and Tabcorp in 2008, then allowing Intralot to share the lottery licence and finally by giving Intralot the contract to monitor the operations of the state's pokies.

"The Victorian Government doesn't engage with you because of so-called probity issues," he said.

"We haven't spoken to them this year. We've got no ability to communicate well with this government despite the fact we're one of the biggest taxpayers in the state.

"It's a weird, unusual situation we find ourselves in here. One that makes it difficult to establish a reasonable dialogue and explain our position to the Government."

He said dialogue had been sparse with the Brumby government but it was "more of the same" with Ted Baillieu.

Tatts will take 40 senior executives to Queensland when it moves by mid-2013, with another 50 jobs likely to go early next year when specialists monitoring and maintaining the state's poker machines fully hand their roles over to Intralot.

Mr McIlwain said more than 50 per cent of the company's revenue came from Queensland, and half its 2400 jobs were based there.

Victoria privided only a small proportion of the company's earnings.

He said there been no chance to negotiate with the State Government over the proportion of revenue it kept from Tattslotto. 

The state tax take left it 4 per cent, compared to 10 per cent in Queensland and NSW.

Also, Victoria offered only six-year licences while Queensland offered 60-year deals.

"The history is the company moves so it gets its best business arrangements," Mr McIlwain said.

"We came here because we got a big licence and what's happened, after 50 years we can't repeat that and other places are doing what Victoria did 50 years ago."

"They're doing it better."

He revealed the Tatts Group had been negotiating the move north for months. 

The Baillieu Government last night hit back at Tatts' claims Victoria was no longer the place to be for business.

Government spokeswoman Kate Walsh also denied the Coalition had not met Tatts management this year while they plotted their move north.

s"The Minister has met with Tatts, including its CEO, when appropriate, as have departmental officials," she said

"Tatts currently has threats of litigation against Victorian taxpayers as well as other licensing issues that are a direct result of Labor's mismanagement.

"The Government has acted in accordance with legal and probity advice, including with respect to its dealings with Tatts.

"Any suggestion of Tatts to the contrary is wrong and inappropriate."

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/gambling-giant-tatts-group-defects-interstate-and-tells-victorians-theyre-out-of-luck/story-e6frf7kx-1226450442156