GOLF CLUB POKIES PUSH
PORTARLINGTON Golf Club is pushing to install a suite of poker machines ahead of the State Government’s pokies freeze.
The club has applied to host 55 machines, up from the current 45, at its Hood Rd venue with the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR).
Club chief executive Ronald Stockdale has been listed as the applicant along with Ian Assender, David Bond, Graeme McGregor, Brian King, Marilyn Mooney, Leigh Wilson and Janice Cogger listed as associates. A hearing date is yet to be confirmed by the VCGLR with decisions still pending on venue applications from Wangaratta, Bendigo and Noble Park.
Mr Stockdale was unavailable when contacted by the Geelong Advertiser yesterday.
The Portarlington submission is unlikely to be affec- ted by the poker machine numbers freeze flagged by State Gaming Minister Marlene Kairouz last week.
The ruling means Victoria will retain 27,372 or fewer machines statewide for the next quarter-century.
Geelong’s maximum permissible number of poker machines is 1402 across the municipality and there are 1302 at present, exactly 100 short of the local cap.
A VCGLR spokesman said venue operators will have the opportunity to acquire up to the number of entitlements they held on July 7, the day the Gaming Minister made the freeze announcement.
“If a venue operator currently has an application for additional entitlements in progress, the total number of entitlements available for the 2022 allocation will be considered on an individual basis,” the spokesman said.
Shadow gaming spokesman Tim McCurdy said Ms Kairouz had provided little detail on the poker machine plan so far.
“What remains unclear is the revenue implications for government,” Mr McCurdy said.
Corangamite MP Sarah Henderson said the State Government had taken a passive approach to the societal harm of poker machines.
“The Turnbull Government has introduced wide ranging reforms to address the social harms of gambling ... in contrast, we are seeing very little action from state Labor.”