Expired licence could cost club 11 pokie machines and be ‘absolute nightmare’

The Timaru Town and Country Club may have to substantially reduce the number of pokie machines it operates after it failed to renew its gambling licence before it expired last month.

Earlier this week, a Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) spokesperson confirmed the club’s licence to operate gambling activities at its Douglas St property had expired, forcing the club to cease all gambling activities.

The licence allowing the club to operate 18 gaming machines expired at the end of September.

The club now has to apply for a new gambling operators licence from the DIA, and will then have to apply to the Timaru District Council for a new consent under its gaming venue policy. The council’s communications and engagement manager, Stephen Doran, said the council would seek advice from the DIA, but it is their ‘‘current understanding’’ that the club will have to apply for a new Class 4 Gambling Venue Consent.

‘‘This would be considered under our current Gambling Venue Policy, which allows for a maximum of seven gaming machines,’’ he said.

This would mean the club would lose 11 of its gaming machines.

Timaru Town and Country Club general manager Vince Gardner said he was not aware of the rules of the policy restricting the number of gaming machines to seven, but believed it would not come to that.

Gardner said the club would have to ‘‘redevelop their whole business’’ if they lost that number of pokies.

‘‘It’s going to be an absolute nightmare for the TTCC,’’ he said.

However, Gardner said he had made inquiries and was confident the club would be able to retain 18 machines if it got a new gaming licence within six months.

Gardner said the club intended to ‘‘immediately’’ apply for a new licence, but said the club had outsourced the handling of its gambling licensing to a third party.

The DIA spokesperson confirmed it had not received an application from the club as of Wednesday.

Electronic gaming machine operator licences are assessed and renewed on an annual basis, to ensure correct harm management and other controls are in place and working correctly, they said.

‘‘This has been the case since the Gambling Act came into force in 2003, and Timaru Town and Country Club are aware of this as we have been working with them recently to ensure they demonstrate licensing requirements.’’

The spokesperson said any organisations with an operator’s licence have a responsibility to submit a renewal application before the expiry date of their licence; this is a legislative requirement to continue operating gaming machines.

‘‘Any applications received are assessed by a regulator and the licence issued if appropriate. In the case of not holding a licence, a new operator’s licence must be granted before gaming machines can be used.’’

According to information held by the DIA, as of June 2022 there were 94 gaming machines located across six venues in central Timaru.

Of those, The Grosvenor Hotel, Richard Pearse Tavern, Old Bank Cafe and Bar and Timaru Town and Country Club each had 18, Armadillo’s on Stafford St had 15 and the Timaru South Cosmopolitan Club had seven.

If the Timaru Town and Country Club loses 11 of its 18 machines, that will be an 11.7% reduction in gaming machines across central Timaru.

There are another 72 machines located across the Timaru District, with 42 in Temuka (Crown Hotel 18, Temuka Hotel 14, Empire Hotel 10), 18 at Geraldine (Village Inn and Crown Heritage Hotel – nine each), seven at the Ascot Sportshouse and Eatery in Washdyke and five at the Pleasant Point Hotel.

Figures released by the DIA earlier this year, showed almost $12 million was lost to pokie machines across South Canterbury in 2021, and Timaru machines accounted for most of that.

More than $10m, which equates to $28,000 a day, was spent on pokie machines in Timaru alone. This figure is the amount lost to machines, also known as gaming machine profit, and does not include any winnings paid out to gamblers.

In Timaru, $10,150,461 was lost at 166 pokie machines across 13 venues, 11 of which are located in medium to medium high deprivation areas.

That loss was up by $1.5m on 2020.

Timaru topped figures for annual per person spend on pokies for the whole Canterbury region, averaging $279.65 per adult, compared with a national average of $238.85 per adult.

The Town and Country Club would have to ‘‘redevelop their whole business’’ if they lost 11 gaming machines. Vince Gardner Club general manager