Responsible Serving of Alcohol

Intoxication and the Law

The Club encourages everyone to have a good time in a safe environment at your Club – whether the RSL or the Sports at Bulli. As part of this strategy, the Club has a strong Responsible Service of Alcohol programme in place and will not condone intoxication or any of the unacceptable behaviour that stems from intoxication. Some members have taken offence have service cut off and being asked to leave on occasion despite their claim they are not drunk.
 

Why is this??

Intoxication is totally different to being drunk. If a person is drunk – they would be regarded as severely intoxicated. The laws as imposed by the NSW Government changed on 1st July 2008 regarding alcohol, intoxication and being asked to leave the premises if deemed intoxicated or approaching intoxication.

The NSW Government via the Office of Liquor, Gaming & Racing issued behavioural guidelines on how to ascertain if a person is intoxicated and which all licensed premises are strictly bound to follow. There are many indicators and the Police use any two of these to ascertain if a person is intoxicated. Thus we must use the same method and cut off service of alcohol and ask the person to leave – which at times does cause embarrassment. It is not the staff intention to stop you having a great night out – but unfortunately the onus is on the staff to police the laws. For more information on these guidelines and the law please visit www.olgr.nsw.gov. au/pdfs/intox_guidelines.pdf. If the Police find an intoxicated person on the premises, the staff are personally fined a minimum $1,100 per offence. This fine is per affected person – so if there were a group of say 4 intoxicated persons, the staff would be liable for $4,400 each in fines. The Club is also fined. If this occurs several times – criminal charges can be laid against a licensee – as happened at Campbelltown Catholic Club

If a person is deemed as intoxicated – again, that is not drunk - that person will be asked to leave the premises, which is the law. If the person refuses to leave or creates a scene - the person is guilty of an offence and Club staff are required to call the Police, where the person will be charged and receive an infringement of a minimum $550. If the person remains within 200 mtrs of the property, a further offence is committed and attracts a further fine of a minimum $550. The laws are pretty hard – but the Government wants to stop the socially unacceptable behaviour that comes from too much alcohol.

I can assure you we want you to have a good time but you need to be aware of the changed laws and monitor your alcohol intake and if service is cut off – please don’t take offence – the staff are only doing their job.