CHIEF executive Peter Jackson says he feels good about the club’s decision to step away from gaming.  

Jackson said he understood a range of issues were involved in gaming, but he didn’t want to force his opinion on others.  

“I was on the inaugural board of Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation after I left Essendon, so I get it,” he said.

“I don’t think it necessarily means all wagering and all gaming is evil, but I do get what the issues are.

“I think a sporting club, we exist because of the game and we exist because of people coming into the game, so in that sense, it feels better. That’s a personal view and I wouldn’t want that to be a measure of what anyone else should be doing – people have got to make up their own minds on this stuff.”

Melbourne has opted to end its association with gaming, having sold hotel Leighoak to the Mooney Valley Racing Club. That will come into effect on July 31 this year. The decision to end gaming at the Bentleigh Club will happen in 2022.

“We’ve got time to transition and readjust, so it’s not as if it’s going to be this big whack and you’re suddenly $2 million off the bottom line,” Jackson said. 

But he acknowledged Melbourne couldn’t have relinquished its gaming commitments when he first arrived at the club.

“That is absolutely right. Where we are in the commercial evolution of this football club and its modern history, we can make that decision today, yes,” Jackson said.

Jackson said the board would look at options, in terms of what it will reinvest. But he added that the decision to step away from gaming was a balance between community expectations and business realities.

“We understand the community sentiment, but the reality is that we also have an obligation to make sure the club’s financially solvent and sustainable, so that’s what makes these decisions a bit hard,” he said.

“We’ve grown this football club quite substantially in the last three to four years, through traditional revenues and match-day revenues.

“We don’t need a massive increase in growth … to replace the $2 million. [The sale of] Leighoak offers another opportunity for reinvestment, so it’s not something this football club is particularly challenged about, at this time in its evolution, commercially.

“I think it’s a good time for us to make this decision – other clubs will speak for themselves and I can’t comment on their position.”

Meanwhile, Jackson said the club would continue to explore its options in relation to finding a new facility to house the football department and administration.

“If we can land on a spot with facilities over the next 12 months – I’m not suggesting at all that we’ll have a new facility in 12 months – but land on a spot where we might be able to go in the future, depending on the commercial outcomes of that – that will help,” he said.

“There is not one silver bullet that’s going to turn it around – there will be a multiplier effect of three, four or five different things, which will replace all of this.

“That’s why timing is important.”

Jackson said the board and management was doing “as much work on facilities as it’s done on gaming”.

“I just hope that we’re able to land on something, as a preferred option, sometime during this year,” he said.

“Where that is and what it is – I haven’t got a feel.”