Figures highlight clubs' plight

New figures reveal registered clubs are closing down in record numbers across New South Wales.
Lismore RSL will be the 126th club to have closed or amalgamated in the past four years.
David Costello from Clubs New South Wales says a study over the past five years shows the impact of the State Government's poker machine tax, in particular.
"It clearly showed that about 50 per cent of all the clubs in New South Wales are either in a loss-making situation or at best breaking even," he said.
"And of course as we now head into, and we're right in the middle of it now, the first of seven successive years of tax increases, we're really concerned that the Government needs to have another look at these tax increases and try to find a useful compromise before the industry is destroyed."