The Victoria Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) has heard plenty of disputes over poker machines over the course of the past year. It is the tribunal’s job to weigh in on disputes in which local community members oppose the addition of poker machines to certain venues. This week, the VCAT made an important decision regarding a pokie venue expansion in Monash.
L’Unico Hotel has been trying to expand its venue for some time. The venue’s owners wanted to accommodate more patrons by adding more floor space and other facilities; however, local community members opposed the idea, stating that an expansion would disrupt residents.
“We’re concerned that the extra customers will be parking in residential streets and waking up residents in the early hours of the morning,’’ says Micaela Drieberg, mayor of Monash. So, community members will be disappointed to know that the VCAT has sided with L’Unico Hotel. The tribunal has given the venue permission to expand, only if a limit of 250 patrons is imposed after 6pm.
Now the Monash Council has set its sights on another aspect of L’Unico Hotel’s operation: the pokies themselves. Council members want to overturn the gambling commission decision to allow the venue to install new poker machines. Although the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation approved L’Unico’s bid to install more pokies last year, community members believe that the VCAT will retract the approval.
Members of the Monash Council believe that there are too many pokies in the community already. With 1000 poker machines at various venues, Monash has the most pokies of any municipality in Melbourne. As such, community members do not feel that there is the need for any more pokies in Monash. A date for this hearing has not been set.
The VCAT is quite busy acting as the intermediary in many other pokie disputes, so it is likely that a decision on the appeal will not be made until Spring 2013.
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