Part 9 of 70 — Original Chapter: Chapter 5: Building Basics – Business Principles and Property
This article forms part of the serialised republication of Panthers, Passion & Politics – The Roger Cowan Years.
With control of both clubs established, attention turned to strengthening the systems that underpinned the operation.
Taking responsibility for both clubs gave Cowan far greater control over the finances. As the club began to show consistent profits, attention turned to planning improvements.
A significant part of the club’s early success in 1966 involved attacking the internal and external scams that were rife in the club industry at the time, particularly around gaming machines.1
Kevin McGrath, who worked in the club’s poker machine area during the 1970s, late recalled an early scam highlighting the brazenness of the scams operating within clubs at the time:
There was one syndicate that had worked out how to set up a jackpot on the Inca machines. They were laughing at us and getting a lot of jackpots. We knew it was not possible to get that many jackpots, but nobody knew how they were doing it.
By watching them, we worked out that you could see into the machine at the side, and, using a thin piece of steel, line up the bolts. So, we cut strips of cardboard and stuck them to the machines so that you couldn’t see inside.
The group walked in while we were doing it and they were very angry. One guy marched straight up to me and said, “What are you doing with my machine – you can’t do that!”
Max Connors remembers how serious these people were about what they were doing.
Some would get an imprint from the lock of the machine and make their own key.
Roger used to wander around every night, often quite late, keeping an eye on things. One late Thursday night after the trots at the local showground, he and a duty manager were watching a couple of men. One had big pockets inside his coat, the other was keeping watch while he cleaned out the drawers. They caught them and went to their car which was full of calico bags filled with ten and twenty cent pieces.
On another occasion, club management worked with the Liquor Administration Board2 on investigations of a scam by a group of the Club’s poker machine attendants who were later charged by police.
Over the next few years, Cowan introduced measures in the poker machine area to try to eliminate theft, and to streamline the process, both for staff and players. One of these was a conveyor belt. The coins would drop onto the belt and move along to a central bin, saving attendants from having to clear out individual machines and carry heavy coins.
Bryn Miller, later CEO of Merrylands RSL club, also worked in the Penrith club’s poker machine area at the time. He says the conveyor system predated the widespread use of nylon bearings, so everything had to be greased. Often the coins would come out covered in black grease. But he says it was a novel way of handling money, and it made it so much easier for the staff.
Miller recalls that Cowan was always open to new ideas and would do everything he could to put them into practice. He believed the club was probably the first to introduce computers into the club industry. A particular system called Feeney Electronics3, introduced in the early 70s, met with mixed reaction from staff and directors.
This was an absolutely brilliant system so far ahead of its time. The poker machines had small electrodes on their reels, and when they lined up for a jackpot, it recorded in a computer system. This transmitted the details onto television monitors around the club. The supervisors on the floor could see the machine number, and the jackpot details. We would go straight there, check it and pay it.
It was state of the art stuff, unbelievable for the time — most clubs didn’t even have a computer. Colour television was only just around.
To put this into perspective, Penrith Council installed its first in-house computers in 1977. It was a system that used dumb terminals. Council got its first PCs in 1984, when the typing pool was replaced by a few word processors on secretaries’ desks.
Phil Bennett was an inspector with the Liquor Administration Board in the Feeney years. He agreed that the system was 15 years ahead of its time. He said it was innovative and visionary, but it came too early to get any useful information from the Liquor Administration Board’s point of view.
Although the system did not evolve the way it was envisioned, it delivered valuable information that supported other areas of the business.
Cowan later conceded that he may have convinced the Board to persist with Feeney longer than he should have. Had it succeeded, it would have been a major breakthrough. There was nothing like it anywhere in the world at the time4, and the commercial potential was significant. Ultimately it cost the club around $1 million.
Barry Hubbard said many on the board saw it as throwing good money after bad.
Bryn Miller saw it differently
It was one of the very important innovations. It took ten or fifteen years for the industry to even start working on it again. And at least twenty years for the systems to actually come out and be operating properly. It would be impossible to estimate the value of the savings we made because of the system.
Cowan also introduced a further innovation to Panthers members.Members were able to collect Panther Stamps; the club had a large gift room, and stamps could be used to purchase items. This was, of course, the forerunner of the incentive schemes operated by many clubs.5 But it was very likely the first.
Being different and leading the way was part of the Cowan psyche. Another Penrith first in poker machines was an increase to the jackpots. The standard jackpots paid on 5, 10 and 20 cent machines were 5, 10 and 20 dollars. The club increased this to 6, 12 and 24 dollars. By today’s standards, that extra $4 may not seem much, but with the average wage around that time about $60, it was a real bonus for the players.
But improving systems was only part of the challenge. The broader question was who the club was being built for — and that would require a different kind of change.
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- The mechanical operations of poker machines in those days made them an easy target. See Beyond the Book: Wires, Magnets and Monitoring ↩︎
- The Liquor Administration Board (LAB) was the NSW regulatory authority responsible for the oversight of licensed clubs and gaming operations. It later became the Department of Gaming and Racing, and now is the Liquor & Gaming NSW.
↩︎ - Feeney Electronics developed an early electronic poker machine monitoring system that attempted to centralise jackpot and machine data – a concept well ahead of industry practice. See Beyond the Book: Feeney Electronics — Ahead of its Time
↩︎ - Electronic monitoring systems were emerging internationally during this period, several interviewees believed the Penrith system was unusually advanced.
↩︎ - Trading stamp reward systems were common in Australian retailing during the 1960s and 1970s. Penrith Rugby League Club adapted the concept into a club-based loyalty and reward program. See Beyond the Book: Panther Stamps. ↩︎
Panthers, Passion & Politics - The Roger Cowan Years 