HOTEL NO LONGER POOR MAN’S CLUB

Southland Times, Issue 23674, 24 November 1938, Page 13

HOTEL NO LONGER POOR MAN’S CLUB

SIDELIGHT ON SYDNEY BETTING INQUIRY

SYDNEY, November 10. The old idea that the hotel is the poor man’s club is a thing of the past. If you attempt to use a hotel room as a club you will not be there long before a barmaid will “pop” her head in, and ask you what you are ordering. This was the contention of Mr R. Windeyer, K.C. at the Starting-Price ■ Betting Commission today. He added .that hotels were run on strictly comImercial principles to sell drink, and

not to provide club facilities. The point arose over the question: — Is a hotel a poor man’s club or any man’s club? How long can you sit or stand in Sydney hotels without buying successive drinks? The Royal Commissioner (Judge Markell) said that it was a popular supposition that a hotel was a poor man’s club. The point at issue was, why a man who did not drink should spend many hours a day in a Sydney hotel. A second point was whether he lingered there to take part in starting-price betting. Mr Windeyer’s view was that, if you did not buy drinks at fairly regular intervals, you were not welcome in Sydney hotels.