TAB pulled out of Comiskey venues

A 20-year partnership between the Moreton Bay-based Comiskey Group and TAB has ended.

Tabcorp is withdrawing its betting facilities from all Comiskey Group hotels after the Group declined to sign the company’s new five-year venue agreement.

The closure affects TAB facilities at the Comiskey Group’s Eatons Hill Hotel, Sandstone Point Hotel, Samford Hotel, The Imperial Hotel Eumundi and Dakabin Hotel.

Comiskey Group’s new venues - the Country Club Hotel in Strathpine and Aura Hotel on the Sunshine Coast - will be redesigned without TAB.

The previous TAB agreement expired on June 30, 2026, with Tabcorp ceasing services across Comiskey Group venues from July 1.

Comiskey Group says Tabcorp’s new agreement included substantially higher weekly venue fees and significantly reduced commissions.

Also, mandatory upfront investment of between $15,000 and $21,000 per venue for TAB equipment that remains owned by Tabcorp and provisions transferring certain regulatory liabilities onto venue operators.

“The new contract would have cost our business hundreds of thousands of dollars each year through higher fees, lower commissions and additional costs,” Comiskey Group Director Rob Comiskey.

“We couldn’t justify signing it because it is both unfair and not commercially sustainable.

“Hotels have supported TAB for decades, but this deal shifts even more cost and risk onto the venues that actually hold this network together.

“These venues carry the staffing, infrastructure, security, utilities and day-to-day operations that make retail wagering possible.

“Yet they’re being asked to pay more while taking on more risk. At some point, that stops being a partnership. The partnership is well and truly over.”

Tabcorp has been approached for comment.

Mr Comiskey said the implications went beyond individual venues and raised concerns for the wider racing industry.

‘If you strip viability from the venues that drive turnover and engagement, you inevitably weaken the ecosystem that depends on them,” he said.

“Across the industry, operators are being asked to absorb higher costs, lower returns and greater risk, despite already carrying the operational load of retail wagering.”

He said hotels already bore the majority of operating costs with pubs providing the premises, staff, security, utilities, cash handling and day-to-day operations.

“Now they’re being asked to fund equipment that remains owned by Tabcorp, while earning less in return. The economics just don’t stack up,” Mr Comiskey said.