Conclusion of 'A History of Machine Gambling in the NSW Club Industry: From Community Benefit to Commercialisation'

The purpose of this paper has been to demonstrate how the historical development of NSW
clubs as major providers of machine gambling has been facilitated by their not-for-profit
status, membership requirements and social benefit objectives. These three features provided
the basis for the clubs’ legitimacy as dominant poker machine operators. However, increased
commercialisation of NSW clubs gradually has undermined their distinctive relationship with
the community, which stemmed from their role in pursuing and promoting the common
interests of their members in sporting, recreational, social, cultural and community arenas.

This change in focus from social to economic imperatives has aroused public and political
scepticism about the clubs’ actual distinctiveness from profit-based organisations, the
concessions they receive, and the costs and benefits of club machine gambling. The clubs’
increasingly aggressive pursuit of commercial, revenue-producing activities has been
accompanied by criticism that they have exploited their favourable treatment to protect their
machine gambling monopoly and other competitive advantages, to the subordination of their
original social role. Thus, while contemporary NSW clubs generally operate within the letter
of the law, serious questions have been raised about whether they still operate within the
spirit of the relevant legislation.

Further, the implicit assumption that community benefit is built into club machine gambling
has been seriously questioned. This apparent weakening of the clubs’ fulfillment of their
social contract to operate machine gambling for community benefit invites calls for greater
social responsibility in club gambling operations. Indeed, community expectations for clubs
to be good corporate citizens may be heightened due to their not-for-profit status and
community benefit charter and as a trade-off for their competitive privileges.