Welcome to the Brand New Australian Poker League Website. We are just optimising the page for your browser, please allow 10-15 seconds to load this first time. It should be nice and quick next time you visit us! Poker machines: 481 Revenue (last financial year): $64,382,922. Mingara was the trial site for the controversial “chaplains in clubs” scheme in 2012, which was proposed by Clubs NSW as an alternative to gambling reform. Today the club is the 8th highest earning pokies venue in NSW. Rooty Hill RSL Club Poker machines: 726. Rooty Hill RSL has 726 poker machines - one of the largest collections of any NSW club - and regularly ranks in the top ten highest-earning clubs in terms of gaming machine profit. Function,rooty hill,carousel inn,function room,woodstock. The Carousel Inn has been a long standing favourite with locals offering fantastic food, great entertainment, relaxed atmosphere & friendly service.

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They’re NSW’s dirty dozen: 12 registered clubs that in any other country would be called casinos. Enormous entertainment complexes that between them operate close to seven thousand poker machines, make almost one billion dollars in gambling revenue every year… yet call themselves not-for-profit organisations and enjoy lucrative tax concessions from the state government. They bankroll campaigns to protect their gambling industry, they have the ear of the government and they claim that they’re leading the fight against problem gambling, even while their profits grow… just who are NSW’s dirty dozen?

1. Mt Pritchard & District Community Club (Trading as Mounties)
Poker machines: 603
Revenue (last financial year): $107,393,033

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Welcome to Mounties

Mounties is the highest-earning poker machine club in the country. They’re also located in the Fairfield City Council area, which has the highest losses in NSW. A double distinction, if you will. Mounties boast of their 4 restaurants and 13 bars, not to mention the gym, the hairdresser or the child minding service… but they don’t say much about their annual 9 digit poker machine revenue.

2. Western Suburbs (Newcastle) Leagues Club
Poker machines: 556
Revenue (last financial year): $101,145,000

Wests in New Lambton is the other $100 million plus pokies club in NSW. Each of their 556 poker machines rakes in $182,000 a year, making them the most lucrative pokies in the state.

3. Bankstown Sports Club
Poker machines: 745
Revenue (last financial year): $86,683,187

4. Canterbury League Club
Poker machines: 695
Revenue (last financial year): $78,228,286

The recently-formed Canterbury-Bankstown City Council has the second highest losses on poker machines in NSW… and is home to the state’s 3rd and 4th highest earning poker machine clubs. Bankstown Sports Club has the distinction of having more poker machines (745) than any other club in the country, while Canterbury League Club is not far behind. Between them they pull in over $160 million in gaming revenue each year.

5. Dooleys Lidcombe Catholic Club
Poker machines: 450
Revenue (last financial year): $75,292,054

The first of two “Catholic” clubs in the Dirty Dozen, Dooleys actually changed their constitution in 2011 to allow them to get political and fight against poker machine reforms.

6. Cabra-Vale Ex-Active Servicemen’s Club
Poker machines: 450
Revenue (last financial year): $68,714,893

Cabra-Vale Diggers is the second Fairfield City Council club on our list. Nothing says “remember our Diggers” like hundreds of poker machines and sheer golden opulence.

7. Penrith Rugby League Club
Poker machines: 610
Revenue (last financial year): $66,754,000

Penrith Panthers is the flagship of the Panthers Group, which expanded to a dozen clubs on the back of poker machine revenue but has shrunk in recent years due to crippling debts and poor management. Their 600+ poker machines keeps this club afloat.

8. Mingara Recreation Club
Poker machines: 481
Revenue (last financial year): $64,382,922

Mingara was the trial site for the controversial “chaplains in clubs” scheme in 2012, which was proposed by Clubs NSW as an alternative to gambling reform. Today the club is the 8th highest earning pokies venue in NSW.

9. Rooty Hill RSL Club
Poker machines: 726
Revenue (last financial year): $55,617,583

Rooty Hill RSL

Rooty Hill RSL loves the spotlight. They ran an advertising campaign saying they were so big they needed their own postcode, and they regularly host “town hall-style forums” for our leaders during federal elections. They seem far more interested in their Novotel Hotel and their bowling alleys, paid for and subsidised by pokies revenue, than our returned servicemen and women.

10. Parramatta Leagues Club
Poker machines: 520
Revenue (last financial year): $54,177,399

Parramatta Leagues Club has seen its fair share of financial scandals over the years, culminating in the sacking of their board last year for misusing funds to make extra payments to Parramatta Eels players. Despite it all, their 520 pokies have kept them at number 10 in the state.

11. Liverpool Catholic Club
Poker machines: 435
Revenue (last financial year): $52,804,118

The second “Catholic” club on our list. Last year their community contributions were just 3% of their poker machine revenue. The other 97% probably went into their new hotel extension, or their ice skating rink, or maybe even their mini-golf course.

12. Revesby Workers’ Club
Poker machines: 525
Revenue (last financial year): $51,561,890

It was a close call for number 12 in the Dirty Dozen, but Revesby Workers Club just edged out Wentworthville Leagues Club. Revesby Workers has slightly fewer poker machines than Wentworthville Leagues and slightly higher revenue as well, but the deciding factor was that Revesby Workers is in the Canterbury-Bankstown Council area, which (as was mentioned earlier) is the second-highest losing council area in NSW. Revesby’s contribution to that can’t be ignored.

Special Mention

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Let’s not forget the clubs that are just outside the Dirty Dozen. Wentworthville Leagues Club, of course, has 541 machines and made $51,146,386 last year. There are three other clubs in the 500+ poker machines category: Western Suburbs League Club (Campbelltown) – 510 pokies; Commercial Club (Albury) – 623 pokies; and Twin Towns Services Club – 596 pokies. The Commercial and Twin Towns clubs deserve special mention for staying alive and continuing to make huge gambling profits even after the spread of poker machines in to Queensland and Victoria made their border-town status largely irrelevant.

Note: Data on gaming machine numbers is © State of New South Wales (Department of Justice) 2017.
For current information go to justice.nsw.gov.au.

• »News
• »Live Poker Returns to Casinos from Sydney to Queensland

Australians did the hard work and nearly eradicated Covid-19 from its nation. While the pandemic cannot be over until vaccinations become readily available, the number of positive cases has decreased significantly, enough to allow most businesses to reopen. And that not only includes casinos but the poker rooms that have been closed for much of 2020.

The Star Gold Coast

Just before the pandemic, the Star Gold Coast introduced an expanded and updated poker room. Closing it due to pandemic restrictions was all the more difficult but, of course, necessary. After many stops and starts since March – reopening announcements and reclosing notices – the room did reopen this week.

The Star Gold Coast opened its poker room again on Friday, 11 December.

Cash games returned at noon that day and now offer action from 10am every day of the week. Play is limited to 7-handed cash games at this time. But that was enough to bring a lot of players back to the tables, including Lynn Gilmartin of the World Poker Tour.

Treasury Brisbane (Star)

Another Star Entertainment venue, Treasury Brisbane, also opened its poker room on Friday, 11 December. As of 12 December, the room was open seven days per week for cash games.

Cash games will remain 7-handed for the foreseeable future. Dealers spread Hold’em but will add Pot Limit Omaha upon request. The buy-information for basic NLHE cash games is as follows:

• $1/$3 = $80 minimum to $300 maximum
• $2/$5 = $100 min to $500 max
• $5/$15 = $200 min to $1K max
• $5/$10 = $1K min to $3K max

APT to Brisbane 19-24 January

The Australian Poker Tour was the first to host a major series since the pandemic took hold of Australia. With much communication with venues and government officials, not to mention a lot of support from players, the APT hosted a series in Brisbane in October.

The Eatons Hill Hotel hosted the APT Brisbane 7-11 October, complete with 14 tournaments and an abundance of safety protocols. And as players scrambled to get back to the tables, they made the event very successful. There were 4,555 entries in the tournaments from 972 unique players. And the events awarded $749,405 in prize pools.

With that, APT Brisbane is now on the calendar for 19-24 January at Eatons.

Over the course of the six days, the schedule shows 24 tournaments estimated to produce about $1 million in prize pools. The $200 buy-in Main Event will be a repechage tournament with four starting flights 20-23 January with Day 2 set for 24 January. Other features of the series will include a tag team event, ladies’ championship, and high roller. And players will find Hold’em and PLO, even Pineapple, in a variety of formats like shootouts, bounties, and shock locks. Players can also choose from freezeouts, some reentries, or unlimited reentries.

All tables will play 8-max to abide by government recommendations.

APL to Queensland 4-7 February

The Australian Poker League was shut down for most of 2020, as were most tour operators, but the APL is planning for a comeback in 2021.

The group’s FB page posted a teaser for an APLPT Queensland event at Southport Sharks with a $150K prize pool for the series. The short video hints of a $150 buy-in Main Event with multiple starting flights, which will serve as the centerpiece of the 16-event series schedule for four days (4-7 February).

APL will release more information, including the full schedule of tournaments, before the end of December.

WPT League Quarterly Championship 24-28 February

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Regular events from the World Poker Tour – in the form of WPT League Australia – are now playing regularly in the Sydney and Brisbane areas.

The WPT League did join with St. Johns Park Bowling Club and cSports to offer a December 13 Xmas Cash event with $200K guaranteed.

It is also planning for the WPT League Quarterly Poker Championship at the Gold Coast Turf Club & Event Centre in Queensland. The series will offer $550K guaranteed overall from 24-28 February, 2021.

Southern Poker Tour Tanunda Thunder 5-7 January

On a bit of a smaller scale, the Southern Poker Tour is on the move. The tour focuses on Southern Australia (obviously), and hosted a Riverland Ruble series in November. The seven events culminated in Rob Keszler winning the Main Event for $4,500.

The tour already set up the next one, which is set for the Lambert Estate Winery in Barossa Valley. Organizers expect the 5-7 January series prize pool to exceed $60K.

More to Come as Covid Clears

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Poker players are anxious to return to the tables, the live ones with other people. Each event hosted in the past few weeks and months, as documented in more detail by Poker Media Australia, delivered solid numbers and showed the desire to resurrect live poker.

The number of positive Covid-19 cases in Australia declined substantially in August and September. By the start of October, there were barely a dozen new cases reported throughout the entire country. Through November, the numbers remained very low.

As of 12 December, the entirety of Australia reported only 6 new cases, three in NSW and one each in NT, VIC, and WA. And the approximately 50 cases that remain active from past weeks are contained in hotel quarantines.

With vaccines now in final stages of approval around the world, combined with Australia’s coordinated efforts to eradicate it, the country may return to normal – or close enough – within the coming months. Meanwhile, poker entities seem ready to step back into the waters and bring the players together.