It’s been over a year since the New South Wales Government rushed through the tough liquor and lockout laws on Sydney’s entertainment precinct to curb alcohol-fuelled violence, the city’s CBD turning more into a ghost town as venues have closed due to a fall in business, but would you believe, there are some venues that have been granted exemptions from these stringent laws.
This may make your stomach churn, but the government have declared that venues within Sydney’s CBD whom have pokie machines are free to move patrons in and out of their establishments after 1:30am, however live music venues still must abide by the existing strangling legislation, as Fairfax (via FasterLouder) reports.
Venues that will have a rotating door after 1:30am include Tattersalls, Scruffy Murphys, Cheers and Charlie Chans, with City Tattersalls chief executive Tony Guilfoyle commenting that it was a necessity the gambling rooms be open as the club is suffering both “socially and financially” because “general visitation within the CBD is well down” a person speaking on behalf of Cheers adding that “no-one is walking around at 1am to 2am in the city.”
It should be noted that these gambling hotspots within the CBD will not be able to serve alcohol, which therefore sees the locations pertain to the original notion of a “dry-area”, however it does seem rather unfair that live music venues not be granted any form of similar liberty. Since the introduction of the controversial changes, multiple live music spaces have been forced to close down or shift locations, the Backroom, The Spice Cellar and the Flinders all examples of this.
Venues and musicians have previously banded together to put forth their grievances of money lost since the the laws were laid over the CBD, however they’ve fell on deaf ears. It’s no surprise that when casinos and the ilk complain about the money of and traffic they’re losing due to patrons being unable to enter after 1:30am, the government takes action to alleviate the problem – this may have something to do with the tax revenue they receive from an establishment that has pokie machines, clearly that is more important than the music and nightlife culture that is suffering.
Focusing on the violence factor, some stats taken from a Fairfax piece point out that the state’s most violent venue is in fact Sydney’s The Star casino, the article drawing from figures from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research review that showed “between February and September last year there were an average of 6.3 assaults per month” which is actually “up from 3.5 in the corresponding period for 2013.”
Despite having the worst track record in the city, The Star is located in Pyrmont, which sits outside the entertainment precinct and therefore has no form of lockout and alcohol sanction placed upon it.
Compare this to one of Sydney’s most happening hotspots in the entrainment precinct that doesn’t have any form of pokie machines, Goodgod Small Club, who told inthemix that they’ve had to seriously “change their business model to stay afloat”. Sadly, the venue can’t host once in a life time spontaneous events like when Radiohead’s Thom Yorke stopped by after midnight to play a 4-hour DJ set (via Pedestrian) or of course, as Fairfax note, when Prince snuck into The Ivy Ballroom to perform a gig that didn’t start until 2am.
By providing such an exemption to places where one can potentially throw away a bucket load of their money on gambling, yet continuing to choke the CBD’s once thriving unique late night music culture, is the state government seriously suggesting that gambling is a better way to spend your evening rather than enjoying music?
