New licence bid to save club’s pokies from sudden retirement
The Timaru Town and Country Club can retain all of its gambling machines if a new gambling licence is applied for within six months, according to a Timaru District Council statement.
The club’s licence to operate 18 gaming machines expired at the end of September and on October 26, a Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) spokesperson said the club had been forced to cease all gambling activities.
Council communications and engagement manager Stephen Doran said yesterday that the DIA had confirmed that if the club submitted an application within six months of the expiry of its licence it does not have to obtain a new consent from TDC.
A new class 4 gambling venue consent would have meant the club would have been restricted to a maximum of seven gaming machines, cutting out 11 machines.
Timaru Town and Country Club general manager Vince Gardner earlier said the club would have to ‘‘redevelop their whole business’’ if it lost that number of pokies.
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.
A DIA spokesperson confirmed it had not received an application from the club as of yesterday.
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 in Stafford St had 15 and the Timaru South Cosmopolitan Club seven.
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 last year and Timaru machines accounted for most of that.