ID scanning laws: Venues to shut early to avoid extra costs

ONE of Queensland’s most popular hotels says it will close its doors early rather than fork out extra costs for expensive ID scanners, which are compulsory from this weekend.

Gambaro Hotel on Caxton Street, will reduce its licensed hours so they will not have to introduce ID scanners.

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VENUES throughout Queensland have declared they will close their doors early because of the financial impost of the compulsory ID scanners due to start this weekend.

Led by Gambaro Hotel, venues are cutting their liquor licenses from 3am to midnight in order to avoid having to install a scanner.

Scanners cost venues about $5200 a year in rent.

Gambaro Hotel manager Frank Gambaro said the State Government had not fully calculated the impact of introducing compulsory ID scanners on all venues.

He said Gambaros was traditionally a restaurant and could not afford to be manning ID scanners every day it was open from 10pm just because it held a 3am licence.

To avoid a cost of $5200 a year in rent for each scanner, Gambaro has altered its licence to trade until midnight.

“We look to close most nights at midnight anyway. It’s only for the big events like State Of Origin and Bledisloe Cup that we close later and our crowd is an older, corporate crowd,” Mr Gambaro said

“It’s just poor that the government has put this on to us. We wished the government had thought it through more.”

Fellow Caxton St boutique bars, Brewski and Fitzenberger, are also in the process of reducing their licensed hours to midnight.

“Our venue is small and it doesn’t make financial sense to open past midnight,” said Brewski owner Antoinette Pollock.

Fritzenberger manager director Andrew Jeffreys said they “are surrendering” their late night licence.

“With over half of our sales in food we are by no means a high risk venue.”

The changes mean venues less than 400m apart are subject to different laws because of the Safe Night Precinct catchment area.

In Rockhampton, publican Leigh Turnbull said he had applied to have his venue, The Criterion Hotel, exempt from the Safe Night Precinct but was unsuccessful.

“They (pubs outside of the SNP area) can trade 10am-2am every night of the week without scanners, where as we are forced to have ID scanners if we want to open that late because we’re in the precinct,” he said.