Is Live Music Flushing Out Pokies?
They’ve been the bugbear of bands and gig-goers for years, but are we finally seeing an end to the pokies’ reign over Sydney’s inner-city pub scene? DARREN LEVIN reports.
It’s the traditional enemy of Sydney’s pub rock scene, a noisy nuisance that takes up valuable room where bands and mixing desks should be. But while the backlash against pokie machines – which spread like a rash through inner-city Sydney throughout the 1990s – isn’t anything new, live venues are seemingly becoming less reliant on them as a revenue stream.
Last week, World Bar removed 15 poker machines from its Kings Cross premises, a four-storey Victorian terrace that’s been converted into a live music venue and bar. It was a symbolic gesture as much as a practical one. The machines had been there since the early 1990s (when the venue was still called the Rhino Bar), but were removed to free up space for a new room.
“The plan is to create a flexible space, not only a cozy and comfortable indoor area for patrons throughout the week, but a place for album launches and listening parties, spoken-word and book readings, possibly private functions and events,” World Bar’s head of marketing and promotions Grant Barnes explains.
“The pokies backlash isn't new, but venues reacting to the backlash perhaps is”
Barnes says the machines didn’t fit World Bar’s business model any more – and in truth, they never did. The venue currently has eight bands performing every Friday night for indie club night MUM, and also hosts regular music and arts-based events and DJs throughout the week.
“Ditching the pokies is something we've wanted to do for a long time,” says Barnes, “but their removal really just reflects what the people of Sydney want from their entertainment venues - it's this shift in the market that should be applauded and encouraged.”
While some venues in NSW, mostly league clubs and RSL, still earn up to $100 million a year from their machines – accounting for an estimated 60-80 percent of their total revenue – the coupling of gambling and live music isn’t always a winning combination. In an interview with M+N earlier this year, The Annandale’s publican Dan Rule said punters – the gig-going kind – were not big gamblers. While the pub still has nine machines installed, they don’t pay the bills.
“Punters don’t play poker machines,” Rule said. “I’ve got mates that own hotels and they take $40,000-$60,000 out of their machines a week. I don’t even take $500 out of my machines a week.”
As for the World Bar, Barnes says the revenue from pokie machines was declining, particularly over the past few years. “Sure we will lose some revenue, but ultimately this is a smart, forward-thinking business decision to instead open a new room for our punters.”
He considers the removal of pokies from World Bar a “rare victory” for nightlife in Sydney’s inner-city, which has been beset by pub closures – most notably The Hopetoun Hotel, which shut its doors in September last year – and council crackdowns over licensing regulations and noise complaints.
“The pokies backlash isn't new,” says Barnes, “but venues reacting to the backlash perhaps is. Hopefully, it happens more and more in the near future. It really comes down to people not playing them, which is a trend that I think will continue - I mean, they're not very exciting are they? I don't know anyone who wouldn't rather be watching a band.”
World Bar’s new room is expected to open next month.
They’ve been the bugbear of bands and gig-goers for years, but are we …
hmmm pretty cool really.
Nice photo. Looks like they're trying to hail a cab.
Brills!
looks like they're trying to exterminate a cab
Exterminate!!!!
one could be cynical and say oh the punters didn't fill the machines and so the owner made a basic economic decision and now is gleaning cred from a decision based on pure maths...then again I guess thanks to the punters not filling the machines//that got rid of them
so..we know how to get rid of them. don't use em. simple. QED
anyway forgetting cynicism. yay.
Or take over the world.
So one bar gets rid of some poker machines and its a revolution?? I don't think so.
Good publicity for the bar though
yeah I can tell you this not all pubs are taking out poker machines. My local if it has a quiet day still can make between $10,000 to $15,000 dollars from the machines.
So maybe it wasn't working for them but it's working for others
That's a nice little earner for for World Bar too seeing as poker machine licences sell for around $125,000 each.
world bar's not a typical pub example. it's more a big nightclub anyway, with backpackers who drink lots and don't gamble a large element of their clientele.
and as dan rule says, music punters don't play pokies, but he'll also tell you the banks won't loan money to any pub that doesn't have pokie licences, such is the perceived worth of the damn things.
they're probably getting installed at the bourbon.
Top stuff Grant!
Now its time to modify the clientele to some aspect.
not familiar with this space but do they only have live music one night a week?
poor pokies. i'll give one a home.
I'll take one to the next DDC
applause
I wish Melbourne venues had more pokies. There's nothing quite as entertaining as enjoying a great line up interspersed with watching pension cheques and lives crumble around you. It makes me feel much better about myself and this I enjoy.
Slot on you crazy deadened!
Thats not actually funny Hellza - you know anyone with a gambling addiction? Just as destructive as drug + alcohol addictions, but maybe you think they're funny too!!!
Is actually a venue in Oakleigh that got rid of their poker machines last year and has had bands all this year but not much media attention it seems.
I can pretty much guarantee that.
As funny as a fart in a bathtub. Though I knew this alcoholic dude who'd always think he was going to fart and it'd be a big stinky poop. Worst fella to have a bath with. Maybe they should install baths in gaming venues? Surely if we could provide them with all their needs they wouldn't even need that house anymore anyway. Problem Solved!
There'd probably be OH&S issues with having vessel of water you could submerge a human body in within a certain number of metres of a bar.
Move the bar. These people barely drink anyway, they are more interested in the free tea & coffee. The only people who are drinking are their 18-25yr old kids who are dragged out of the house daily to watch mum and dad shit their educational opportunities and furniture down the money tubes of sweet blinking love. So just shuffle that bar away a bit, attach a play station to the counter and they''ll no longer need a lounge to recline in. Problem Solved!
Agreed. You're a hell of a social engineer, sir.
I should have also been a town planner.
Well, if Wilkie ends up calling the shots, they'll make heaps less anyway: ''Mr Wilkie said renovations to Royal Hobart Hospital and betting limits on poker machines were his main demands.''
I think they should place them in hospitals with betting limits equaling the daily charge of admittance. Slot magic donkey punchers all smoke anyway and they are predisposed to shit food and complacency. Imagine whole wards full of sweet smoke nectar and betting banditry, it'd be just like the good old days when the boys would come home from war. Except this time though don't even expect a free house, just a hug now and then. Problem Solved!
This is definitely not a widespread trend. Club Blink (yuk) had this to say about their move from The Agincourt in Ultimo:
I know it's probably not normal to post posts from other forums, but I just read this on bigfooty and think it's pretty great...
''The Pokie Debate - My Personal View
It's a little strange for me to get personal on bigfooty, but I will just to get my point across very clearly.
My parents are addicted to the pokies, I'm 21 and It's frustrated me since I was a kid.
I remember being left at the children's play pin area with my sister when I was around 6-10 (until I was old enough to stay home) so my parents could gamble away their money in the adult section of the taberat.
Those play pins were bloody fun, they had Nintendo 64's installed (which were the bestest and coolest things on the planet at the time), they had slides, swings, pizza and soft drinks. This was the place to be, it was actually really fun. If I had of continued to be enthralled by that place, I may have become an addict myself, who's to say people aren't being influenced to gamble this way?
But what I didn't realise at the time was that it's pure intention was for it to be fun. Disguising stealing money as 'fun' is evil in my opinion. My parents must have felt the same in the next room, I mean...the bright lights just lure you into the joint. The vibrant sounds sooth you and make you feel like it's an adventure park, I'm sure half the people that got addicted to the place initially got addicted because of the vibe these places give you - that's the evil in it all, it's designed to look/feel like Disneyland except it takes away your money for absolutely no return (in the long run especially).
So my parents continue to gamble now, and whatever I say to sway them it just won't work, it's their hang out spot, they have been poisoned now, however we haven't been hit to hard financially - but is it right for some kids first memory to involve those stupid machines over football matches, festivals, the wiggles or even the library? Because my parents never took me to any of that.
Before someone decides to jump on my parents and begin calling them names, my mum almost died from ovarian cancel + breast cancer 15 years ago, coincidently...that's when the problem started, my father just supports her with anything she wants, we are lucky to have her and let me tell you how these changes would affect me.
It would put a limit on how often my parents can spend time there, once there is no option to continue gambling, they can actually come home. It would make a world of difference to my family and keep in mind, there are thousands of families it would affect greater than mine.
It may give my mum a shot to try out another hobby, it may discourage an individual just a TINY bit from going back frequently.
This is something no football club has a right to question, and it absolutely makes my blood boil that the fat cats of our land are making generalised statements that it won't affect anyone and they are pointless, because quite frankly I'm proof that it will affect me positively.
I praise the North Melbourne Football Club for no relying on this evil resource of money, and I'm happy that if these laws do pass, it won't make much of a difference to my own club's bank balance. But even if it did, my view on this matter wouldn't change because sometimes, things in life can be more important than football.
So to all the clubs from both codes, go ** yourselves and find a more dignified way to earn a buck, god help us you all already earn enough as it is, kill the greed.''