INVESTORS who want to buy Rafferty’s Tavern for an $800,000 revamp have revealed they need revenue from gaming machines to justify the development.
Melbourne-based SJ Beaumont Investments has lodged a planning permit application with Warrnambool City Council and sought approval from the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation to operate 19 pokies for which they paid $2.47 million at an entitlements auction last year.
Company partners Peter Cook and Stephen Beaumont said if they could not get approval to operate the pokies their Warrnambool plans would not proceed.
“The proposed gaming machines are important to enable the venue to provide a full range of entertainment options for patrons at the venue,” they said.
They unveiled their vision to turn the west Warrnambool venue into a large modern family dining and entertainment venue with an upstairs conference centre.
Its dining area will seat 330 people and there will be a children’s playground.
The duo heads the Cook Beaumont and Partners Group which runs 28 hotel and accommodation premises in Victoria and Queensland. Eight have gaming machines.
“Gambling is not our core business,” they said.
“Our aim is to seek sites that operate below their potential, buy them, renovate and kick the business on.
“Rafferty’s fits our model. It’s in a growth area and we saw it as an opportunity to renovate and provide a better offering for the western side of Warrnambool.
“It came to our attention about three years ago and we ascertained there was an opportunity to apply for gaming licences last year.”
The company’s 19 pokie entitlements would fit in the city’s cap of 234 machines.
A submission from the council has been sent to the commission which is expected to announce its decision by October.
The council has been seeking community opinion on gambling and for many years has been concerned about the millions of dollars spent on pokies.
Last financial year players lost more than $19m on Warrnambool gaming machines .
The Cook Beaumont group believes it will not worsen the gambling problem, but provide another venue for players who already visit other sites in the city.
It engaged research consultants who calculated that gaming expenditure in the municipality was expected to increase by less than one percent because a “significant” percentage of the existing gaming expenditure would be transferred from existing venues.
The research also played down concerns about nearby housing commission areas being more vulnerable.
“The adult population in the housing commission area is only 0.95 per cent of the adult population within five kilometres of the venue,” it says.
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