An extra 14 poker machines will be installed at Braybrook’s Bakers Arms Hotel following a Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal decision.
The VCAT ruling, made public on October 6, will allow the Braybrook hotel to add machines in its gaming room, which currently has 31 pokies.
Justice Geoffrey Code presided over the hearing involving the Ballarat Road venue and the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR).
The VCGLR knocked back the hotel’s plans for 19 extra gaming machines in December last year, citing the area’s socioeconomic disadvantage as the deciding factor.
The VCGLR found the high risk of a negative impact outweighed the likely “moderate economic benefit” to the community.
It said the fact that Braybrook was among the most disadvantaged Victorian postcodes with an unemployment rate of 15 per cent, heavily influenced the outcome.
The application was amended before proceeding to the administrative tribunal.
Bakers Arms Hotel director Adam Sebastiano told the hearing there were plans for a redevelopment of the hotel and gaming room, which would lead to “20 extra ongoing jobs”.
Mr Sebastiano’s claims were accepted by Justice Code.
“Although there is no guarantee local people will be employed … Mr Sebastiano’s evidence is that local staff would be preferred,” a VCAT report said.
“The weighting [of this factor] should be more than low, because unemployment in Braybrook is relatively high.”
Last year, Mr Sebastiano told the commission the hotel would set aside $100,000 each year for sports and community groups, including $25,000 for Brimbank, and the commitment remained.
A further condition to cut two hours of trading per week was added to the amended application.
More than $5.54 million was spent on the hotel’s pokies in 2013-14, an increase of 20 per cent on 2012-13 when expenditure was more than $4.65 million.
In 2012-13, $137.63 million was spent at poker machines across Brimbank – one of the highest totals in the state.
