Pokies Sending 103-year old Bendigo Club to the Poor House

Even though you might think that any venue investing in the purchase of a poker machine is bound to be making money this is not always the case. For the people at the Bendigo Club the potential blessing that was the installation of poker machines back in 2010, became something of a risky and costly bet for the club. The 103-year old Bendigo Club has had many successes and failures in the past but none have been quite so costly or for that matter Ironic. The club space and bistro has over 1400 hundred members but it seems that not even that consistent throng of patrons was enough to save them from the cost of banking on poker machines for profit.

The club asserts that purchasing several poker machines has left them broke. After purchasing them from a 2010 auction, the club believed they would result in a gold rush of income, fully expecting the machines to pay for themselves several times over. Unfortunately, that seems to not have been the case. The club paid an initial $2 million for exactly 40 gaming poker entitlements, a rate that is well above the market average, carving out a rather sizable debt. In fact they have made no profit from the investment at all and they are currently still $800,000 in the whole to their financiers. This should sound as a warning to other Bendigo clubs like the Croydon Hotel, which has just received permission for another 10 pokies.

The owners see this threat to the Bendigo Club’s existence as a profound tragedy, partially because of the long history of the establishment and partially because of the role the place plays in the lives of the people in the community. The place started out as just a snooker club in the 1900’s but today it is the heart of the community and a part of the city’s social fabric. Still they are optimistic that his will not be the end of the club and that this current difficulty is one part of a storied history.