Venues
Insurance for licensed clubs and RSLs
Our brokers arrange insurance for RSLs, bowls and golf clubs, and sporting clubs with their own bar.
01
Club licences in three states
These three states give club licences different names and different rules.
- 1
New South Wales
Many RSLs, bowling clubs and golf clubs trade under a club licence, which lets them sell alcohol to members and their guests. Every club with this licence must have an approved secretary, and that person is also its chief executive.
- 2
Victoria
The full club licence usually suits big commercial clubs, like poker machine venues and racing clubs. A restricted club licence suits community and sporting clubs, including RSLs run by volunteers. It lets the club sell drinks from a bar or kiosk to people watching a match from the stands.
- 3
Queensland
The community club licence is for non-proprietary clubs, meaning sporting, RSL and similar clubs whose profits stay in the club instead of going to members.
02
Rules for the board in New South Wales
Club directors are required to have relevant experience and to do specific training.
Size of the board
Since 1 January 2017, a club board can have no more than nine members.
Director training
Training covers a director's fiduciary duties, meaning the duty to act in the club's interest, and good governance. At clubs with over $1 million in gaming profit, meaning profit from gambling, every director must be trained or exempt from training. Smaller clubs need only two.
Poker machine training
Directors who oversee a venue with poker machines, which the rules call gaming machines, must also complete training on gambling harm.
Serving behind the bar
A volunteer director who serves alcohol needs a responsible service of alcohol (RSA) competency card, the same as paid bar staff.
03
Poker machines
In New South Wales, only hotels and clubs can run gaming machines. Each machine needs an entitlement, meaning the right to operate one machine at that hotel or club. In Victoria, a club has to hold a club venue operator's licence to use its poker machine entitlements.
04
Volunteers on the committee
WorkSafe WA's guide for volunteers says an unpaid committee member or director can be an officer, someone who helps make the club's big decisions. Officers have legal duties for health and safety.
A paid officer can be prosecuted for failing those duties. A volunteer officer can't, though they can be charged over the duties every worker has. The guide also says a club run entirely by volunteers, employing no one, falls outside WA's Work Health and Safety Act.
05
What a club can insure
Public liability, if a bowler rolls an ankle on an uneven path, or a wedding guest falls in the function room, and sues the club.
The clubhouse itself when it belongs to the club, plus the contents, from bistro tables to the cartons and bottles in storage.
Management liability, if the directors are sued over a decision they made for the club.
The night's cash, if a thief gets into the tills or the office safe.
Fixing or replacing refrigeration and kitchen equipment that breaks down.
What club secretaries ask
Your broker checks with insurers whether both sites can share one quote. Have each site's address and licence handy. In New South Wales, each site has to hold its own licence.
Pick Licensed club or RSL from the venue list on the form. That choice is for every licensed club, sporting clubs included.