ACT Clubs received almost $3.3 million in COVID emergency relief funding in the 2019-2020 year as the government dipped heavily into a funding pool previously set up to ease clubs' reliance on poker machine income.
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Under an agreement signed off by former attorney-general Gordon Ramsay, the emergency funds were doled out to Canberra's small, medium and large clubs to "keep club staff employed or provide other income support to club staff".
Earlier this year, the Diversification and Sustainability Support fund was set up with the aim of helping clubs "pursue a future away from gaming machines and support club staff to develop new skills", according to the latest Justice and Community Safety annual report.
But the rapid onset of the pandemic and its crushing financial effect on Canberra's pubs and clubs as restrictions arrived quickly put paid to that aspiration.
The largest relief handout was to the Canberra Southern Cross Club, which received $486,080. The Canberra Raiders Sports Club received $414,739.
The Ainslie Football and Social Club, which also operates the giant Gungahlin Lakes Golf and Community Club and which in 2019 reported a gaming revenue income of $14.2 million, received $298,108.
Smaller clubs like the Belconnen Magpies, received $57,037. The Harmonie German Club received $23,408. The smallest emergency payment made to a contributing club was $8982 to the Austrian Australian Club. The National Press Club and the Canberra Racing Club received $5000 each even though they don't contribute to the fund
Many small clubs are now teetering on the brink of financial viability after months of closure. On re-opening, patron numbers were well down although by June 18, the number of people which could be admitted rose to 100 per enclosed space.
Under the Labor-Greens agreement signed after the re-election of the Barr government, the stated goal is to reduce poker machine licences in the ACT to 3500 by July 1 2025, and introduce $5 bet limits and $100 load-up limits on machines by the end of 2022 "at the latest".
As at June 30 this year, the number of poker machine "authorisations" in the ACT stood at 3888, down from 4943 reported to the ACT Assembly in August 2018, when a two-stage plan for the compulsory surrender of licences was announced.
Among the largest licence holders currently are the Southern Cross Club, which has 554, and the Dickson Tradies, with 309.
The licence surrender process sped up in June this year when a fresh incentive was introduced as part of the government's COVID-19 economic survival package.
It offered clubs or hotels a payment of $15,000, specifically "to be used towards employment of staff", for every licence surrendered.
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By June 30, a number of clubs had jumped on this with 109 more licences surrendered in exchange for incentive payments totalling $1.635 million. No details have been provided by the Directorate as to which clubs surrendered licences.
Club payments to the diversification fund, which in pre-COVID times Mr Ramsay had predicted would total around $1 million a year, have now been suspended until at least March next year.
The Justice and Community Safety directorate was contacted for further comment and information, but was unable to provide it.
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