Jobs have already been lost with the gaming machines ban and more are set to follow bar owners said yesterday.

Last night gaming house Plush closed its doors for the last time with the loss of four posts.

Beach owner Rick Olson said he may be forced to shut Salt Rock Grill in the winter season while Ozone is set to shut during the daytime with the loss of two jobs.

Neil Inchcup, Jr., who owns Plush on Parliament Street, said: ?I am hoping the court date next week will save those jobs.

?I find it amusing (Attorney General) Larry Mussenden finds statistics that no-one else can find saying people have lost their homes and cars. We haven?t seen anything of this.

?He says he represents the community but what part of the community? I am really interested to find out.

?He hasn?t asked people who come here how they feel about it. It?s pretty one sided.

?They say they are protecting people but they are not giving anyone a choice. I guess we are all pretty dumb and Government has to think for us.

?If they take this away people will still find a way to gamble.?

Beach owner Rick Olson said: ?We are in the height of the full season so the impact is minimal now but in the off season, if this is not overturned, it will have major implications for our staff.?

He predicted some venues which based themselves primarily around gaming would be put out of business.

Gaming provided The Beach with 95 percent of its revenue in the off season, said Mr. Olson and his business would be forced to trim costs by cutting into advertising and entertainment budget.

?Gaming is a huge part of the revenue,? said Mr. Olson who said The Beach would probably be forced to close at one a.m. rather than three a.m. in the off season.

?Salt Rock Grill will probably close down in the winter.?

Neil Inchcup, Sr., who owns gaming house Seamont Exclusive gambling club in Collector?s Hill, Smith?s, said: ?Yes, there will be a lot of people out of work, there?re no two sides about that.

?A lot of people won?t be able to afford to pay their staff what with employment tax and hospital levy because they won?t be making the revenue to meet those commitments.?

He said Government had overestimated the money operators made on the machines.

?They keep saying everyone will retire from having these machines on their premises but we are a long way from that after five or six years.

?Government says people are losing their houses and not paying rent, that?s not true. Government should have taken a complete census. As far as I am concerned Government rushed to judgment.

?They can say we were warned for four years but it cost a lot of money to bring them in, the parts are very expensive but you don?t make that kind of money.

?I wish to Christ you did make that kind of money but that?s the decision and we have to do other things.?

Ozone night club co-owner Gary Sheppard said two jobs would be lost on the lunchtime to ten p.m. shift because of the gaming machine ban.

?In the near future we will only be open in the evenings. We are currently open from noon.?

He too questioned why gaming machines were being singled out by Government while bingo was allowed to remain.

However the loss of gaming machines from Ozone could be good news for local entertainers who might soon return to the club?s backroom which, until September 2002, hosted live bands.

Mr. Sheppard said: ?I am certain we will have live music there in the near future.?