Bendigo Stadium Limited will not renew its lease of the Wellington Hotel when it expires in coming months.
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It is understood the stadium’s inability to secure poker machines at the White Hills venue contributed to the operational decision.
BSL last year applied to install 44 electronic gaming machines at the hotel, which was opposed by the City of Greater Bendigo and in August rejected by the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation.
The commission concluded there was likely to be a “small net negative social and economic impact” to the well-being of the community in the area where the venue was located.
Community attitude was also recognised in the decision with the commission finding an “overall negative community attitude to gaming and to the application”.
BSL in March withdrew its planned Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal appeal of the VCGLR’s decision, preferring, it said, to focus on the new stadium expansion in west Bendigo, which will host its first game on Friday.
BSL chairman Mark Lennox at the time said the board decided it was in the best interests of its members to focus all available resources on the Bendigo Stadium expansion.
“The existing Wellington Hotel business, which has been leased by BSL since October 2015, will be retained in its existing form,” he said.
“It is business as usual for the Wellington. We have been building up the core business over the past two years, and we will ensure great customer experiences continue to be provided to the White Hills and Epsom communities.”
The Bendigo Stadium operates 180 EGMs across three venues – Bendigo Stadium, the Borough Club and St Arnaud Sporting Club – which had a combined revenue of $5.8 million from July-December 2017. In March last year it emerged BSL had been sponsoring a Catholic primary school just metres from where it planned to open a gaming venue.
Almost $4000 was donated to Holy Rosary Primary School on Napier Street, White Hills, since October 2016 to support two movie night fundraisers.
But both organisations said payments were not an incentive to keep quiet about the proposed installation of 44 new poker machines.
A social and economic impact assessment prepared on behalf of the stadium and submitted as part of its planning application argued the benefits of 44 new EGMs to the community outstripped the danger.
It also estimated the club would create as many as 12 new jobs and grow BSL’s financial contributions to the community.
The Bendigo Advertiser contacted Mr Lennox and BSL’s chief executive officer Nathan O’Neill for comment and made attempts to contact the freehold owner of the Wellington Hotel.