The club and pub industry’s bitter fight against the government’s so called anti-gambling proposals was at the centre of lengthy discussion at the meeting, Mr Garnett painting a sobering picture of what might happen if commonsense does not prevail.

Pre-commitment provides a restriction on gaming machine expenditure to prevent players spending more money than they originally intended. This is achieved by fixing a maximum limit on losses before the commencement of play.

The government argues that those gamblers who find it hard to stop playing gaming machines once they start would benefit if they fixed the maximum amount of money they were willing to lose. Once they reached their nominated limit, they would have to stop gambling (or receive a warning that the limit had been reached).

Before playing a gaming machine, the player would have to apply for a card, similar to a loyalty card, which would be programmed with the player’s identifying information and the player would nominate their maximum daily/weekly spending limit. A player would only be allowed one card, which would be needed to play any machine in the State.

The cost to the Manning community from Club Taree’s loss of turnover alone would be a loss of $3 million a year plus flow-on effects, Mr Garnett said on Sunday.

“Other clubs and pubs would be affected as well, and this in turn would flow on to all the local organisations, businesses and sporting bodies who rely on us.

“The fight continues, and we will fight to the end,” Mr Garnett said.

“At the end of the day, if this legislation gets up, there won’t be a lot of clubs and pubs left, and there won’t be much sport played in the Manning area, because so many of our sporting clubs rely on the support of licensed premises.

“Junior and senior sporting teams will be the hardest hit, but also we would see the withdrawal of facilities like swimming pools, golf courses and gymnasiums, all provided by licensed premises.