Michael Boland, Broken Hill Musicians Club

I found the Perrottet Government’s announcement about its cashless gaming policy pretty disappointing for the club industry — particularly for regional clubs. Their policy seems to be lacking detail, which is concerning if they succeed at the upcoming election.

It would likely drive our recreational/casual punters away, which would see revenue decline by $1.5 million. The Club would have to reduce members’ benefits by some $800,000 and look at other parts of the business that could be cut, including community donations, to make up for the lost revenue.

Labor’s proposal reads like they are prepared to work with the industry more. They seem to understand that the cashless technology is not quite there yet, so they want to test it and really assess the impacts it would have on clubs. Their policy appears more balanced, with a sensible approach of testing the technology before it’s rolled out across the state.

Everything we have planned at the Club over the next few years has to be reviewed, with a filter of what could happen after the election being applied, but we are currently pushing forward with what we have planned for the future. We are probably one of the luckier regional clubs as we have the ability to diversify (and we have), but I am concerned about other regional clubs that just don’t have that opportunity.