There are no pokie (poker) machines at the club where I am a member.

I don't think I would ever want to have pokies at a Sailing/Yacht Club.

But $200,000 in annual earnings??? That's a hell of a lot of money that can go in coaching, development and club vessels...

From the Courier Mail:



Southport Yacht Club is ditching its 30 poker machines because they are "annoying" and the club is turning its pokies room into a VIP members lounge.

More than 400 members of the Southport Yacht Club on the Gold Coast have opted to give the machines the flick and turn the pokies area into a VIP members lounge amid growing concerns over problem gambling.



But club commodore Neale Hollier said the decision to scrap the machines had little to do with anti-gambling sentiments.

"I think the lot of the members ... a) didn't play them and b) just found them annoying because they took up a fair amount of space that could be better used," he said.

"So our thoughts were: `Let's get rid of them'."

Mr Hollier said the 30 machines, which have been at the club for 10 years, grossed about $200,000 in annual earnings, but that figure had been steadily declining.

"They have been profitable. However, we've found since the non-smoking laws came in the drop in usage of these machines has been quite substantial," he said.

"It was getting to a point where not this year, but by next year, we'd be in a negative situation."

Mr Hollier said the club would offer all 30 machines up for sale and hand back its gaming licence to the government.

But he backed the continuation of poker machines at other clubs, saying it was up to patrons to decide which type of venue they visited.

Does your club have pokie machines? If so, where does the money go?

Should sailing/yacht clubs have poker machines as a source of income, or do they eliminate ambience?

$200000 Gross may seem like a lot but what was the Net return after taxes etc.

Probably a heavy subject for LSD but here goes.

I started sailing in Sydney 40 years ago where pokies were part of the scene. Even then there were 'problem gamblers' or a 'gambling problem'.

It is hard for a club to raise money and having pokies has always seemed to equate to more facilities. If you could be sure that people gambled only what they could afford then OK but evidence seems to be against that.

We don't want to mention the tax take the Government gets! Hypocrisy rules.

I lost interest when they became electronic taking away the 'feel'. Everyone had their own special way of pulling the handle - each way guaranteed to win!

Lets throw them out and use the space. If that means members pay the true cost of running the club so be it.

Keppel Bay is one yacht club that comes to mind that has always thrived off pokies.

I think you will find that the clubs that have $10 associate membership and thousands of members make pokies work! Not always sailor members but locals that go there for a drink/meal and blow some cash and a bit of a night out!

[quote="johnsee"]Keppel Bay is one yacht club that comes to mind that has always thrived off pokies.[/quote]

while this is true , id like to see some more put into the side of things :)

our club has pokies, fairly sure none of it goes towards sailing though. or atleast nothing that we can see.
working upstairs you do see the amount of payouts people get, but then there is the people who sit on them for ages at a time, wasting money away.

I've hear that pokier machine money doesn't really go to the sailors anymore. It used to, but that has stopped now... Allegedly

The word on the grapevine is that one of the big sailing clubs that does has pokies now only has one person who sails on the board and given that the majority of its members have more interest in pokies than sailing... enough said.

The Eighteens [i][b]had[/b][/i] pokies, and a restaurant, and a bar...

Pokies worked for us for a while - the profits there helped us to repay debts and assist with the "Business" side of the sailing club, which was the social facilities offered to the social members. We got a lot of local "old salts" come down for a beer every day at lunch, and then a lot of the new "upwardly mobile" blood who'd come in for a post work drink on their way home, and also throw a few (hundred in some cases!) bucks through the machines.

Some in the neighbourhood got jack of it and one complaint started our downward spiral - we were essentially a business in a residential area. While we knew we needed more bums on seats having a dinner looking over the River, having a few drinks and putting some money through the pokies, we also knew any increase in patronage would also incur the wrath of our complainant (ironically - they were actually members of the club at the time!).

Pokies can have their place - while operating profitably, they can support the clubhouse and pass back some of the profits to improving and maintaining facilities. Pokies and bar facilities should be viewed as a business of the Club, but not as a core being of the Club.

Many equate the Club house and the bar with the Club itself - this cannot be further from the truth. The Eighteens aren't going to go away and die, but we will be gypsies for a little while. We've got an industrial office/shed at Colmslie that will be home for a while (we understand it will take some years to get our own digs again). Any Club's strength lies in the members that form it, not some fancy building.

How much of a clubs profits actually go back into sailing? I was under the impression that most of what we receive (running of races, hot showers, etc.) was covered by our own race fees and memberships.

Also worth looking outside of sailing clubs to see what other clubs are doing. League and RSL clubs are profiting greatly from pokies. Most of the league clubs put money back into their sport with stadiums, coaches, transport to games. Do any sailing clubs do this? Do they even have the money to do this?

You've got to wonder what is going on when a club, any club, can't make money off pokies and decides to sell them. If it isn't what the club members want, then so be it. Maybe the recent QLD government decision on pokies has something to do with it...
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/qu ... 32345.html

A bit off topic, sorry.

PS. I don't like pokies...

I know PCSC in Gladstone has about 10 pokies in their club. The committee has capped it at this number for as long as I can remember. It has always just been that little bit of extra revenue that the club needed to make improvements to its facilities.

(this worked well until a few years ago when the GM at the time pocketed almost $60k of the pokie revenue over a 1 year period!!)

[quote="OG"][quote="johnsee"]Keppel Bay is one yacht club that comes to mind that has always thrived off pokies.[/quote]

I've hear that pokier machine money doesn't really go to the sailors anymore. It used to, but that has stopped now... Allegedly[/quote]

thats probably true... i bet its going into paying off the recent redevelopments/extensions :p

I think the Belmont Skiff club on lake maqurie puts some of its money towards the sailing side of things, they havs thousands of the bloody things!

if its going into redevelopments then isn't that the facilities that the sailors use? a lot of smaller clubs are being made to run as a profitable business by the corporations that own the property that they lay on, which stinks but hey thats the way things are shaping up for the future.

pokies are a good time killer if you've got the money to blow and self control to stick to the amount you say you will but there are some that just cant...

if pokies saves a clubhouse it saves somewhere to sail from/keep boats... if it adds to the developments and makes the club house bigger its gonna get more ppl into the club, i no of a friday night at my club there is a good chance you will start chatting to someone at the bar whose just come for tea and is keen to go sailing but doesn't have a boat or no anyone with one, but then they will meet someone who has one and get into sailing, the evils of pokies may have build the new kitchen that they have come to eat at... thats how a lot of the rsl's and footy clubs work it, the machines pay for the facilities to get ppl in the door which then makes more ppl aware of whats going on...

so in the bigger picture the machines aren't all evil...

Pokies are typically used to support something else going on in the club. You can play pokies anywhere and so it is obvious that people generally don't come to a club purely because of the pokies. They come to the club because of what it provides. The sailers come to sail (and drink), The diners come to dine (and drink) and the talkers come to talk (and drink). Generally the pokies subsidise something. It may be development of club facilities, cheap good quality meals, sail training for new comers, insurance for the club, operating costs , whatever. I've never heard of pokie money subsidising pokie players, although there is the occasion where the money has been used to develop the club to fit more pokies in.
I think the key is not that the pokies are there, but that the club remains under control of the members and the money goes to the things that support the members best. Ideally from my point of view this is sailing support but if a sailing club is struggling maybe a good short term strategy is to use the funds to create something to attract more punters be that better meals or whatever.
There are few clubs that are self supporting purely for sailing. Clubs like the Sydney Amateurs comes to mind where they do not even have significant licensing arrangements but the members are willing to support the club through their own funding and their spare time to ensure it remains a place to sail and sit and talk about sailing. They have worked very hard to maintain the atmosphere of the "sailing club" and although it is not everyone's cup of tea, the members as a whole support it.

I think the difference in NSW is the gaming laws - there's a requirement for a lot of the pokie profits to go back to community initiatives.

Our local pub the scarborough hotel has just got rid of pokies good on them.
But the pokies at our club are out of the way and don't cause any harm at the moment so if they create a bit of revenue all is good. As someone else said you don't see it go directly back into the clubs sports but they do assist keep fees and bar prices etc down.