I know at one stage years back it was costing $3000 a month to have SKY on in a pub/tab situation - and when they only get so many cents commission from each ticket sold it takes a long while to make that back I guess. And it was against policy to have Foxtel on instead.
Many pub tab's have now reverted to just the EBT machine in the bar and have gone away from the counter service apparently. And with the recent changes that mean agencies themselves print the day's form guides instead of getting the big bundle of all meetings via the newsagents, some venues don't event print out many meetings for display, you might get fields if you are lucky.
It's just assumed I guess that everyone bets on their phone and accesses form on the net - anyone else just passing through who drops in for a punt in an agency is probably an inconvenience. Many people though are uncomfortable betting and hanging around in a "pub" environment, and prefer a stand alone shop front.
Interesting to note in QLD they are looking at trialling self serve kiosks in non-traditional venues, such as a supermarket for example. Maybe this might come in here down the track. If you had said to someone back in the 70's that you would be able to access your cash 24/7 from a machine located in the front wall of the bank they probably would have laughed at you, but of course things change rightly or wrongly.