MARIBYRNONG residents have vowed to fight on after a Victorian Gaming Commission decision to allow 70 pokie machines to be installed in the proposed Edgewater Club development.

The controversial ruling will allow the Western Bulldogs to go ahead with plans for a gaming room as part of the $23 million entertainment complex, which will also include a four-storey hotel, bistro, café and conference facilities.

While revenue from the machines is tipped to end the club’s financial woes, residents have slammed the commission’s decision to allow the machines, which they say would prove disastrous for the city.

“Unfortunately, again the interests of a footy club have been put before the welfare of the Maribyrnong community,” said Enzo De Fazio, president of Residents Against Inappropriate Development in Maribyrnong (RAIDIM).

“These pokie machines are right smack in the middle of a shopping strip where families go to buy their weekly groceries.

“That is just unacceptable for us and we will keep on fighting against it.”

Maribyrnong city council mayor Michael Clarke has also criticised the VCGR’s ruling, labelling it a “terrible decision” for the community.

Cr Clarke said there were already 140 pokie machines within one kilometre of the proposed Edgewater site, which would be located opposite low-income housing and a supermarket and would provide scope for opportunistic gambling.

“It’s a terrible decision and we are extremely disappointed,” Cr Clarke said.

The Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation approved the pokie plans on Christmas Eve after listening to nine days of evidence from both sides of the debate.

“We considered that the advantages outweigh the negatives,” the VCGR report said.

“Apart from the physical facilities – likely to be well used – and the fact that the club will have a social facility in an area which the Maribyrnong council recognised as the spiritual home of the Western Bulldogs, the venue will produce a relatively modest profit, badly needed by the Western Bulldogs, whose financial situation is among the worst in the AFL,” the report said.

Although the VCGR has granted a permit for the machines, residents still have one last chance to clock the proposal.

Plans for the Edgewater complex will be heard by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in March after the council refused to grant a planning permit in May.

Representatives from RAIDIM and the council will be attending the hearing to appeal against the commission’s decision.

“We’re looking forward to hearing their (the developers’) argument about the venue’s location in a shopping strip,” Mr De Fazio said.

“It’s a pretty black and white issue for us so it will be interesting to hear how they’re going to get around that one,” he said.