A HOSPITALITY business manager in Lightning Ridge says infrequent delivery of face to face training opportunities has left him hamstrung from employing new local staff at a time when customer numbers are soaring.

Bowling Club CEO Scott Bailey said he is currently prevented from adding new staff to the ranks quickly.

"I have people here who want jobs and I want to give them one but I feel the government and TAFE together are preventing me from doing that," Mr Bailey said.

"There's a bizarre ruling that if you work anywhere with gaming machines, which we have, you have to complete what's called a Responsible Conduct of Gambling or RCG course.

"However the legislation, as it currently stands, prevents these courses from being delivered remotely. They have to be delivered face-to-face."

The organiser of the TAFE courses out in Lightning Ridge says he is aware of the concerns but it is important to understand the courses have to be provided while ensuring the organisation stays viable.

The Lightning Ridge Bowling Club is one of the community's largest in-town employers, with about 65 people working for the club and capacity for more.

The Western Plains App reached out to Liquor and Gaming NSW to ask why RCG courses had to be conducted in-person as opposed to virtually or online, however did not receive a response before publication.

Mr Bailey said up until 18 months ago, the TAFE campus in Lightning Ridge would offer RCG courses around once a month, however this was no longer the case.

"Even when it was once a month, it wasn't enough because once you employ a new staff member you usually want them to start right away," he said.

"But if they haven't done a RCG, they have to wait until one becomes available."

Head teacher of tourism and hospitality at TAFE NSW in Dubbo, who co-ordinates the courses, Nick John said the most recent RCG course in Lightning Ridge was in early March and it had a good attendance.

"Lightning Ridge is actually one of our more beneficial campuses, we always have courses running there," Mr John said.

"However, to run these courses viably, we need a certain amount of participants, otherwise it's costing us money to send people out there because the money goes to Liquor and Gaming NSW."

Mr John said it was one of his aims to ensure the needs of all their small campuses needs are met, one of which was a fully-funded four unit certificate of attainment, which provides the RCG qualification as well as an RSA course, a food and hygiene course and a barista course.

"It's a free four day course and generally have pretty good enrolments," he said.

Mr Bailey said this course, while good in theory, would not allow quite a few of his potential staff to enrol because they already had one or more of the other qualifications already.

When asked about this as a potential obstacle for enrolments, Mr John said in some instances people would still be able to enrol if they had completed one of the other courses before, however any further exceptions would again not be financially viable for the organisation.

"I do understand that workers need (the RCG) qualification and I'm happy to still put it up there (individually), however they will need to pay the full fee and we will need substantial numbers attending or we are at risk of running it at a loss," he said.

"There will be opportunities to do it in the near future, we're actually planning to run an RSA and RCG course on the 8th and 9th of June, but it won't be fully-funded"

While this may help with Mr Bailey's problem in the short-term, he said the fact remains that the courses were not as frequent as they need to be.

He says it is likely the club will have to foot the bill to either send potential staff to a larger location, such as Dubbo, Tamworth or Armidale, or bring in an external instructor to run the course in Lightning Ridge.

"When you have to spend in excess of around $1000 per staff member, taking into account several hours driving and multiple nights' accommodation, however you cut it, it's a cost that my city colleagues don't have to deal with," Mr Bailey said.

"I have tried with other organisations, but it got pulled because the government said it was not a satisfactory way to do it.

"From my point of view, if they want to have rules, then give us the opportunity to do the right thing, otherwise I'm breaking the law by employing someone not suitably credentialed."