ALH fined $175k after minor gambled at Albion Charles Hotel, Cramers Hotel, Excelsior Hotel
The biggest pub group in Australia has been fined $175k after a minor was able to gamble at a string of venues across Melbourne’s north.
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An Aussie pub giant has been fined $175,000 for allowing a teenager to gamble at a string of venues across Melbourne’s north.
Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group, which operates more than 350 hotels across the country, was recently sentenced in Melbourne Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to 24 charges.
The charges including allowing a minor to gamble and a minor to be within a poker machine area and for failing to ensure electronic betting terminals were reasonably supervised at all times.
The offences were committed across five venues between September 2022 and October 2023 and the charges laid by the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC).
The venues involved included the Albion Charles Hotel, Cramers Hotel, Excelsior Hotel and the Rose Shamrock and Thistle Hotel – all in Melbourne’s north – and the Doncaster Hotel, east of the city.
According to the VGCCC another ALH venue allowed an eight-year-old to enter a poker machine area while in the company of an adult in August, 2023.
Minors are not permitted to enter gambling areas in Victoria.
Staff at the Westside Taverner asked the adult accompanying the child to leave and then reported the incident to the Commission.
VGCCC chief executive Annette Kimmitt welcomed the court’s decision to fine ALH.
“It is well established that minors who gamble are more likely to experience severe harm from gambling as adults,” Ms Kimmitt said.
“All venues therefore have a legal and social obligation to protect children from that risk.
“We have zero tolerance for operators that flout the law, especially when children are involved.
“While I commend the staff at Westside Taverner for intervening when they became aware there was a minor in the poker machine area, it is never acceptable for a child to gain access to a venue’s gambling area.”
ALH was fined $175,000 for the teenager, $2,500 for the child, and ordered to pay the VGCCC $45,000 in costs.
ALH is part of the Endeavour Group which also owns Dan Murphy’s and BWS and is the largest operator of electronic gaming machines in Victoria, with 4690 machines across 76 venues.
A spokersperson for the group said ALH took its responsibility obligations “very seriously”.
It regretted “failing to ensure reasonable supervision of the Tabcorp Electronic Betting Terminals and Electronic Gaming Machines at the small number of its venues where the offences took place”.
“Endeavour Group and ALH continue to work constructively and collaboratively with the VGCCC on addressing the risk of harm from gaming services,” they said.
The prosecution was part of a suite of actions taken by the VGCCC against venues and Tabcorp for allowing a minor to gamble, with two actions still before the Magistrates’ Court. The following licensees were previously fined:
Preston Hotel – $25,300
Parkview Hotel – $5,220
The Brunswick Club – $8,720
The Olympic Hotel – $8,820
Northcote TAB Agency in Northcote – $9,960
Edwardes Lakes Hotel in Reservoir – $9,900
Tabcorp – $370,417.
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