The State Government will crack down on pubs and clubs that operate as virtual 24-hour casinos in city suburbs. Eight venues in Brisbane, Logan, the Gold Coast and Townsville have licences to operate pokies until 5.30am. Their opening times vary from 8am to 10am. Another two in Brisbane and one on the Gold Coast stay open to 4.30am or 5am, again with opening times between 8am and 10am.

All-weather fruit machines that smokers can play outside are planned by pub bosses to combat a huge slump in takings. The new generation of one-armed bandits are urgently needed because income from pub machines is down GBP 200million in the past seven years. Many landlords, already struggling to survive competition from cut-price supermarkets, are getting rid of fruit machines because they make a loss.

Pubs will be able to host games of poker for stakes of [[GBP]] 5 and a maximum prize of [[GBP]] 100 from 1 September. The Gambling Act regulations also remove the requirement for pubs to seek permission from local authorities, provided children and young people are not allowed to play. Daily and weekly limits on stakes and prizes for games of chance played in individual premises have been set at GBP 100 and GBP 700 respectively.