Pub owner in Victorian town of Yackandandah calls for return of pokies

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A Victorian pub owner says he wants to reverse a local ban on poker machines so he can re-introduce them to his hotel. Peter Cook owns the Yackandandah Hotel in northeast Victoria but says he's struggling to turn a profit due to the cost-of-living crisis. The local shire says it has no plans to overturn the ban, but Mr Cook says without them, there may be no pub at all.

Transcript

00:00Peter Cook has worked in hospitality since he was 16, but he's never seen times this

00:09difficult for the industry.

00:10I think we're all struggling.

00:12The visitations are down and when people get here they don't seem to have the same sort

00:16of money to spend.

00:19He says installing poker machines at his hotel in Yakondanda would help him make a profit.

00:24We made the decision that through food and beverage and our accommodation is that we

00:29could make a go of it, you know, and we could survive on those three revenue streams.

00:36Now in difficult times, we're now saying, well, geez, that's not quite enough.

00:42But in Yakondanda, pokies are banned and have been since 2001.

00:47The Indigo Shire says it's known for being pokies free and isn't aware of any community

00:52appetite to reconsider its position.

00:55I think we as a community feel really proud and protective of the fact that we don't have

00:59poker machines here.

01:02It's really not the culture that, of course, we exude with a heritage town.

01:07Peter Cook says the localised nature of the ban puts his pub at a disadvantage to those

01:13in neighbouring shires.

01:14Why should I be different to the hotel that's 30km down the road or 20km down the road?

01:19Indigo Shire isn't the only Victorian council with a ban on poker machines.

01:23Eight others have rules around the pokies, ranging from outright bans to understandings

01:28with local hotel owners.

01:30They say it's crucial that local councils make those decisions and not the state government.

01:35If that money was spent on pokie machines, I guarantee small businesses within the towns

01:41would probably close.

01:43And researchers agree, saying the effects of pokie machines on small communities were

01:48alarming.

01:49Local charities or the local council themselves bear the cost of the negative impact economically

01:56and socially of the introduction of poker machines.

01:59Peter Cook says he understands the resistance, but he believes tough times call for a change

02:04of thinking.

02:05We don't want to become a gaming venue, we just want to be a small country hotel that

02:11can produce enough revenue to provide this service.

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