THE Mount Beauty Country Club has gone into administration, with the doors shutting after it became unviable to keep trading.
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The fate of the Kiewa Valley town's only poker machine venue is in the hands of Wagga-based administrator Chris Chamberlain who will hold a creditors’ meeting on Wednesday.
Country club president Ross Davis said there was no alternative to administration after two letters of appeal to members this year failed to lift turnover.
"The bottom line is there was not enough cashflow to keep it viable,” Mr Davis said.
"I'm not very happy, but there is no alternative – legally or morally."
A full-time manager and up to eight casual staff will lose their jobs through the closure which took effect last Monday.
Mr Chamberlain said he was still establishing the financial state of the country club and declined to nominate any figures.
"There is not a lot of debt, most of it is secured to a bank or the Victorian Liquor and Gaming Regulator in respect of electronic gaming entitlements,” Mr Chamberlain said.
"It's more a matter of not being able to continue to trade and service day-to-day debt."
Mr Chamberlain said the best prospect for the club to reopen would be to find a joint venture partner who could provide capital and security.
He plans to seek out white knights over a 45-day window following next week's creditors’ meeting.
"If nothing crystallises during that period that offers some sort of opportunity then unfortunately the company will be wound up with the pokies to be sold and the property to be offered for sale," Mr Chamberlain said.
The club has 19 poker machines which drew $355,962 in expenditure in the 12 months to June 30 this year.
That figure was substantially down on the $681,412 gaming machine spending in 2010-2011.
Mr Davis, who has been on the board for the past three years, declined to say what he believed had sparked the drop-off.
Mr Chamberlain suggested changing demographics may have been a factor.