Perhaps the first casualty of the new rules around gaming rooms signage, the Royal Hotel in Granville in western Sydney, has been hit with accusations of potentially leading to gambling-related harm.
Last year as part of the Minns government gambling reforms, all external gambling-related signage was to be removed, changed or hidden prior to 1 September. As part of this, a list of banned names and motifs was issued, which included images of coins or lightning, and images or installations of dragons or terracotta warriors.
Almost a year later, complaints from the public were made to Liquor and Gaming NSW concerning the similarity of the restaurant’s logo to the cartoon image for Aristocrat Gaming’s ‘Choy’s Kingdom’, a popular poker machine.
On inspection of the venue Liquor and Gaming NSW ordered the Royal Hotel to remove its external advertising signs from both the building and its restaurant’s menu, as well as from its website and social media platforms.
The restaurant, Mr Choy’s Wok, was created by Steven Cai (pronounced Choy), and offers Chinese fare.
The restaurant signage was a cartoon image depicting an Asian man with a bowl of dumplings, in line with its offerings. The cartoon did not include any of the banned images or motifs.
The Choy’s Kingdom image depicts an Asian man with bags of money.
The Royal Hotel, which has 21 poker machines, challenged the decision, pointing out differences in the images as well as arguing that it would incur considerable costs to change the signage.
The pub further lodged a formal review of the order, citing an insufficient investigation and lack of evidence around any actual harm to the community.
The application noted there had not been any legal action from Aristocrat, the owner of the Choy’s Kingdom image, regarding any potential copyright infringement.
However, in her review, Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority chair Caroline Lamb upheld the order, finding that in spite of some subtle differences the similarity was strong enough that it could “increase the risk of gambling-related harm occurring” in the area.
