GREATER Dandenong Council says the Doxa Social Club has no special rights to set up a pokies den in central Dandenong.
As reported in the Weekly this month, Doxa has been in talks with the council to find a suitable venue for its 40 pokie entitlements. The entitlements were bought at $29,000 a machine — a total of $1.16 million.
Doxa lost its Dandenong venue, The Bended Elbow, when it was compulsorily acquired by Places Victoria as part of the Revitalising Central Dandenong project.
“We’ve looked at a number of possible venues,” Doxa Social Club general manager Max Williams said. “We’d like to use the entitlement that we already hold in the City of Greater Dandenong.”
The council’s planning director Jody Bosman said there was no area in central Dandenong “that has been identified for gaming”.
He said the council was not bound by the entitlement granted by the Victorian Commission of Gambling Regulation and not “generally supportive” of new gaming machines in the municipality.
“Doxa has an entitlement issued by the VCGR, not from the council. It can be applied beyond the municipal boundary.”
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