Liquor and Gaming Authority visits Albury to probe booze, gambling issues

And the high density of liquor outlets was another issue raised at the start of the two-day session to probe concerns of groups in the region.

ILGA chair Caroline Lamb, on the first day of the sessions at the Atura Hotel, said the visit was part of the authority's quest to hear first-hand community groups' views.

"We look at trends, the relationship between the density of poker machines and liquor outlets in this area, because there are a lot of poker machines relative to the population here.

"And there are a lot of liquor outlets relative to the population.

"Some people do think there are too many poker machines but they're all points of view that we listen to and take into account."

Mrs Lamb said the authority was talking to pubs, clubs, church groups, gambling help organisations and police to identify problems and work out solutions.

"The sorts of things that we look at is what the police are finding in terms of trends relating to things like domestic violence, violence generally, which is alcohol-related," she said.

"Sometimes it's gambling related to people under financial stress. It is known there is a correlation between financial stress and incidents of domestic violence, particularly."

She said pubs and clubs have to make applications if they wish to change their licence or transfer gaming machine entitlements from one venue to another, or to change their opening hours.

"We try to make decisions that are appropriate for the community that we serve," she said. "The community here is different from a community in Sydney, which is why it's important for us to get out, to see what people are concerned about.

"We're speaking to about six or seven different groups, the council, the Liquor Accord, we're talking to the Aboriginal Medical Service, we're talking to United Church and, of course, the police."

She said public transport was always a key issue that arose during the authority's regional visits.

"Having people get home safely is something that always comes up," she said. "If there isn't any public transport after they've been having a few drinks, they don't want to get into a car, how can they get home?

"That's an issue in many regional areas in NSW.

"In Albury you've got this advantage of having several venues clustered in the CBD, which the mayor pointed out is advantageous to people coming here because they don't have to get into a car to move from one to another."

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