Victorian Clubs Can Now Voluntarily Surrender Eligible Gaming Machine Entitlements

May 26, 2023 | Government

RICHMOND, Victoria (May 24, 2023) — The Victorian Government has announced a scheme that allows clubs and RSLs to surrender gaming machine entitlements they are unable to utilise at their venues, with debts forgiven.

Club venue operators may surrender club gaming machine entitlements if, as at 16 May 2023, the:

entitlement is not attached to an approved venue
venue operator does not have the approval to operate the entitlement within any of their approved venues.

We have contacted club venue operators eligible for the scheme and let them know they must notify us by midnight on 24 July 2023 if they wish to surrender eligible entitlements, in accordance with the notification process outlined below.

The surrender scheme has been implemented via rules issued by the Minister under section 3.4A.20AA of the Gambling Regulation Act 2003. The rules specify the criteria (PDF, 391.29 KB) that must be met for an entitlement to be surrendered and how club venue operators may designate an entitlement for surrender.

Entitlements nominated for surrender that meet the eligibility criteria will be automatically surrendered at midnight on 16 August 2023. Once surrendered, club venue operators will not have to pay the remaining amounts owing for the relevant entitlements under their Entitlement Related Agreement. Club venue operators will also be notified if there are entitlements listed on their form that are not eligible for surrender under the rules.

Notification process

If you wish to surrender any of your entitlements, you must notify us by completing this notification form (PDF, 251.55 KB), which must:

include a list of all entitlements (including entitlement numbers) you wish to designate for surrender in Attachment A
be sent – no later than midnight on 24 July 2023 – via email to contact@vgccc.vic.gov.au

If you think you may hold eligible entitlements and we haven’t directly contacted you, please contact us using the details above or on 1300 599 759. You may want to look at the rules for the change (PDF, 391.29 KB) or our frequently asked questions (DOCX, 86.73 KB) about the scheme first.

Payment of entitlements due 31 May 2023

For venues that are eligible to surrender entitlements and take up this scheme, the Victorian Government will provide an option to defer payment of the May 2023 instalment under the Entitlement Related Agreement to 31 August 2023.

The Department of Justice and Community Services will contact you with the required documentation for you to take up this offer.

If you take it up, you will not need to pay any further instalments for surrendered entitlements. For any entitlements that are not surrendered, the deferred May instalment must be paid on 31 August 2023, together with. the August instalment payment.

Deferred payments will only be offered to venues that are eligible for the surrender scheme.

SOURCE: Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission.