Endeavour beats Victorian pokies deadline, job losses possible

afr.com:

Endeavour Group chief executive Steve Donohue will reduce gaming hours in its Victorian pubs by the end of next month, in an attempt to show states it can be proactive on harm minimisation for gamblers, and beat the Victorian government’s deadline.

Mr Donohue flagged some jobs could be axed as part of the move to 18-hour trading days, but declined to comment on the number of possible redundancies. He also declined to comment on how the planned changes would affect earnings.

Steve Donohue, the chief executive of Endeavour Group, will bring forward changes to trading hours. Ben Searcy

“We just looked at the opportunity to get that done sooner… it does have a direct impact on a number of our team members, and we’ve started working through that with them immediately,” he said. Endeavour has about 100 employees in its hotel division in Victoria; not all will be affected.

The Victorian government said at the weekend it would force gamblers to preset daily limits on poker machine losses, slowdown the spin rate of those machines to three seconds, and close machine areas in pubs and clubs between 4am and 10am by mid-2024.

That sent Endeavour shares tumbling, closing down 9.9 per cent at $5.64 on Monday, their worst performance since the company’s financial results in August.

The $10 billion Endeavour owns BWS, Dan Murphy’s, Jimmy Brings, and Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group, and oversees more than 12,500 poker machines across 300 hotels. It is the largest owner of poker machines in Australia, and the third-largest gaming operator in Australia after Crown Resorts and The Star.

Mr Donohue said on Thursday Endeavour’s hotels would reduce machine area hours by August 31, and that all its poker machines in Victoria already