Could Vikings Chisholm be the first domino to fall? Photo: Clubs ACT.
Chisholm Vikings has been labelled the canary in the coal mine for the clubs industry.
The Vikings Group announced on Tuesday (2 December) that the Tuggeranong club would close on 30 January due to falling revenue and rising costs, but also alluded to the impacts of government policies.
It said the difficult decision was made to safeguard the future of the rest of the Vikings clubs, in Erindale, Lanyon and the Tuggeranong Town Centre.
The closure comes as an independent panel inquires into the future of the club industry.
Clubs ACT CEO Craig Shannon said the closure was not an isolated event but the direct result of a decade of unaddressed government policy failures.
Mr Shannon said that without decisive reform, more ACT clubs would face the same fate.
“For years, ClubsACT has presented governments with evidence showing that shrinking real revenue, rising compliance costs, restrictive land-use settings, and the absence of transition support would inevitably lead to venue closures,” he said.
“The Chisholm decision is a clear demonstration of what happens when those warnings go unheeded.”
Mr Shannon said the ACT Government’s policies to reduce the number of gaming machines in the ACT and to promote diversification of revenue sources, without sufficient support, were undermining clubs’ sustainability.
“The ACT has for years encouraged clubs to ‘diversify’, while simultaneously imposing lease variation charges, planning hurdles, financial imposts and regulatory burdens that make diversification economically impossible,” he said.
Mr Shannon said the Vikings slated the Chisholm site for closure because it offered the greatest potential for redevelopment aligned with government policy priorities, such as housing and urban renewal.
“Yet even this can only occur after the venue becomes financially unviable,” he said.
Gaming Reform Minister Marisa Paterson says the government is committed to strong community clubs. Photo: Thomas Lucraft.
Mr Shannon said the closure showed the government lacked an effective transition strategy and that regulatory and fiscal settings were eroding the viability of venues.
He said the loss of gaming machines had only moved gambling to higher-risk online and cross-border environments, undermining genuine harm minimisation.
The result was also a loss of community infrastructure, including gathering spaces, sporting support and social connection.
“ClubsACT calls on the ACT Government and the Inquiry into the Future of the Club Industry to recognise Chisholm’s closure for what it is: a real-world demonstration of policy failure, and a final warning that the current trajectory is unsustainable,” Mr Shannon said.
He said reforms should recognise the community value of clubs, enable genuine diversification, and deliver a managed transition away from gaming revenue rather than unmanaged decline.
Gaming Reform Minister Marisa Paterson said decisions to close or consolidate venues were made by individual clubs based on operational and market considerations.
Dr Paterson said the government was committed to supporting a strong and sustainable clubs sector as the industry transitioned away from gaming machines and rejected claims that the loss of gaming machines was shifting the gambling problem online.
She said the current inquiry would guide clubs on how to maintain community spaces, support sporting activities, and remain viable in a changing landscape, and urged all clubs to participate.
Recent data from the 2024 ACT Gambling Survey showed that electronic gaming machines caused the greatest gambling harm in the Territory, contributing one-third of all gambling harm, Dr Paterson said.
“Participation in EGMs (19.7%) remains higher than sports betting (15.8%), and over 65 per cent of Canberrans support reducing machine numbers,” she said.
“This underscores strong community backing for the ACT Government’s harm-minimisation approach, and does not support claims that policy is displacing harm to other forms of gambling.”
She said the current inquiry would guide clubs on how they could maintain community spaces, support sporting activities, and remain viable in a changing landscape. She urged all clubs to participate.
“The ACT Government remains focused on balancing community expectations, harm minimisation, and the long-term viability of clubs, ensuring they continue to provide important social and recreational opportunities for Canberrans,” she said.
