A Sydney RSL club during the 1940s …

… isn’t what it used to be.

Spot the difference (hint: it’s not just the colour in the photo). Poker machines are as much a part of an RSL club as the memorabilia cabinets and eternal flames. Financially, they’re vital. And it’s making some inside the returned services brigade nervous.

Jennifer Cornwell is writing a book on the history of RSLs. As she writes for Crikey:

“With the imminent return of thousands of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, the cash-strapped RSL is seeking to reassert its relevance by professionalising its services and modernising its image.

“By contrast, the surviving RSL clubs are increasingly abandoning the very brand they played such a large role in shaping — old men sitting around drinking beer and playing the pokies — as they reinvent themselves in order to appeal to an entirely different demographic. Any association with the RSL is now considered bad for business. Yet their outrageous claim of fealty to the Anzac cause goes unchallenged.”

This Anzac Day, raise a beer to the Diggers who fought so bravely. As those who remain look around and wonder just what happened to their much-loved clubs.