Just found this Skinner, have a read...Oh dear Cameron....your dirty little secret is out :
http://stuff.co.nz/sundaystartimes/4012294a6444.html
By : TONY WALL and STEVE KILGALLON
Auckland Rugby League has paid more than $1 million for another bar, despite losing hundreds of thousands of dollars on its previous pub investments, and seems to have tried to keep it secret by creating a separate trust to make the purchase.
The league's previous pub investments were clearly marked in its annual accounts, but its purchase of a pokie bar in south Auckland, understood to be for $1.2 million, has been referred to only obliquely in accounts for the 2006 financial year.
Under the heading "Capital Commitments", it is revealed that "subsequent to the balance date Auckland Rugby League Inc has acquired land and buildings in Great South Rd, Manurewa".
The Sunday Star-Times has learned that that address off Station Rd, once the site of a Pizza Hut, is now the premises of Playaz Bar, one of south Auckland's most popular and profitable pokie bars.
But the league has not purchased the business, only the land and buildings, through the VTM Trust, which the Star-Times understands is funded by the ARL and includes ARL personnel. The business is run by another company, LP Hospitality, which has no connection to the league.
The Playaz bar business and land were previously owned by Tim Connolly, whose company SAS Sports has the contract to supply jerseys to the Kiwis and Bartercard Cup teams. Connolly sold it to an Asian consortium about six months ago, and it was then sold to the VTM Trust.
The ARL and the NZRL previously bought pubs formerly owned by NZRL deputy chairman Selwyn Bennett and ex-Warriors prop Terry Hermansson in an effort to shore up gaming machine revenue and create an Australian-style leagues' clubs empire. But that venture ended in disaster a year ago, with the ARL having to write off a $145,000 investment in the Duke of Wellington hotel and an $80,000 investment in the Oak and Black Dog.
The ARL also had to write off most of a $250,000 investment in Cafe Espresso Ltd, a company owned by bankrupt former star player Brent Todd and his business partner Malik Wijeyaratne. Todd has since been charged with pokie fraud by the Serious Fraud Office.
The ARL gave Todd a $100,000 interest-free loan in an attempt to get back some of the money it was owed, but the latest accounts show that loan has been written off as well.
ARL chairman Cameron McGregor said a year ago that, despite the losses, owning the pubs had allowed the league to "galvanise" its relationship with the Lion Foundation, which had gaming machines in the pubs.
That comment is understood to have got McGregor in hot water with the Lion Foundation, as pub owners cannot be seen to be influencing where gaming funding goes.
McGregor would not discuss the latest purchase. "What we do is our own business, good investment or bad investment," he said, stressing that the purchase was separate to ARL business.
The Star-Times understands that to avoid the mistakes of its previous pub foray, the ARL has this time deliberately stepped away from buying the bar business, acting solely as landlord. Playaz bar attracts rental of about $100,000 a year, standard for the area.
Former Counties Manukau rugby player Lindsay Raki, who manages the bar for LP Hospitality, said he had yet to be approached by the new owners. He said it was a mystery as to why the ARL would want the land and buildings.
Raki said LP Hospitality collected close to $200,000 a year in rental payments from the Lion Foundation for the 18 poker machines housed on site. Raki said he hoped the Lion Foundation would continue to distribute the pokie money locally and to a variety of organisations.
