Overview
A small country pub on the NSW South Coast is ditching pokies in favour of live music. For years the Tathra Hotel has been home to a dozen poker machines, with 50 percent of the venue's total value tied up in the licences required to have them on site. Despite this, when veteran publican Cliff Wallis took over the hotel last year, he decided the machines had to go.
"Poker machines have destroyed hotels in many respects," Wallis told the ABC. "Some hotels have become primarily poker machine venues, and they do best in the lowest socio-economic areas."
Tathra has a population of just 2000 people, yet had 70 poker machines before Wallis took his stand. The plan is to use the money made from the sale of the gambling licences to revamp the hotel's accommodation. The venue had already begun to host regular live music gigs before renovations began last month. The old pokies room, meanwhile, will make way for a microbrewery.
Although the decision to remove the poker machines has alienated some former regulars, it has also attracted other types of clientele. "We have a lot of people coming in who didn't come here before — retired people, professionals, and more women coming in on their own to have a drink and listen to the music," Wallis said.
Wallis has spent decades working in the industry, and has owned the Sundeck Hotel in the Perisher Valley for 25 years. Ultimately, he says he wants the Tathra Hotel to be "a place that the community is proud of."
Via Music Australia. Image: Wiki.