Horsham Sports & Community Club

The idea of the Horsham Sports and Community Club was born in 1990 when a very small group of community minded businessmen, led by Mr Laurie Rudolph, approached around 40 others in the town. In their brief to get the members to the meeting, the ethos was that if the pokies were going to come to Horsham then it would be in the communities best interest to control the profits, rather than the faceless institution or business man that may not even be local which would result in the profits leaving the community. The meeting was very well attended and it was resolved that around 40 people from Horsham and District, would provide an unsecured loan of around $5K each giving a starting capital of around $200K to purchase a restaurant in Horsham. The idea was to have a full entertainment complex that provided live shows, meals and of course the option to play poker machines. This commenced in July 1990. The understanding at the time was that we would have about 40 machines by October 1990. However, it was over 18 months before we were able to install poker machines and promote the club as a full entertainment complex. During this 18-month period with all our budgeting done on the expectation of around 40 machines, we indeed had to travel quite leanly and sometimes thought that we may not realise our goal. However we persevered, albeit through a number of different managers, to where we are today. The distribution back to the community totals around $1,300,000 in cash sponsorships and donations, with considerable amounts of in kind donations.