Popular RSL club dumps Anzac Day tradition ahead of long weekend (2025)

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Anzac Day is set to look a little different at a major Sydney venue with the traditional game of two-up scrapped.

The game in which pennies are flipped in the air and players bet on whether they land heads or tails was popular with diggers and is by law only allowed to be played in NSW on Anzac Day, Victory in the Pacific Day and Remembrance Day after 12pm.

The North Bondi RSL Club, that hosted bustling crowds partaking in the game in previous years, has decided to do away with it this year so as to maintain a family atmosphere, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The club's CEO Blake Johnson said veteran members had requested the change.

'On past Anzac Days, when the club commenced two-up mid-afternoon, the environment became significantly more rowdy and most younger families left the venue,' he said.

He said this year the club instead wanted to focus on respectful connections between 'veterans, families and the wider community'.

Vietnam veteran Michael von Berg MC OAM told Daily Mail Australia that 'two-up is a wonderful old tradition that goes back to World War I' and that it should be upheld.

'Anzac Day in recent years has become much more of a family focused day and while I appreciate what they're trying to do and wouldn't necessarily disagree with the intention, surely there's another option,' the war hero said.

'That club has quite a big floor space, perhaps they could set up the game in a different area away from families.'

He pointed out that RSL clubs in NSW are privately owned hospitality businesses and are not owned or run by RSL sub-branches.

'There's growing concern about gambling in RSL clubs with the poker machines, these run all year round and yet a once-a-year game of two-up gets cancelled.'

Clubs cannot keep any percentage of two-up bets but Mr Johnson said the move might result in less patrons.

'We anticipate that not offering two-up may result in some small reduction in revenue on the day, but our families are more important.'

The club is affiliated with the North Bondi RSL sub-branch which was founded by some of the original members of the Rats of Tobruk who defended the Libyan port of Tobruk from the larger German forces in World War II.

The club is informally known as Tobruk House or the Rat House in honour of them.

The sub-branch will hold its Dawn Service on Friday on Bondi Beach.

Other Sydney venues that will host games of two-up on Friday include the Harbord Diggers on the Northern Beaches, The Newport, the Royal Hotel in Paddington and Forrester's in Surry Hills.

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