Page 1516 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 1 June 2022
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limits to be set for online wagering and a simple process for closing an online wagering account. Advertising must not target children or be false or misleading about the chances of winning. Direct marketing must not be sent to an online wagering account holder unless they provide consent.
The ACT gambling exclusion scheme also provides a means for people to exclude themselves from gambling at any or all licensed venues in the ACT, if they wish. This could include licensed clubs and hotels with electronic gaming machines, TAB facilities, including face-to-face, online and telephone services, and Casino Canberra. A person may nominate to be excluded from all venues in the territory through a single process or can nominate for exclusion from venues in their local area. All staff involved in the provision of gambling services must have undertaken an approved responsible conduct of gambling training program within the last three years.
Additionally, the ACT Gambling Harm Prevention and Mitigation Fund is used to support projects, events and research for the purposes of preventing and reducing gambling harm. This fund is sourced from a 0.75 per cent levy on gaming machine licensees’ gross gaming machine revenue, a 0.4 per cent contribution from each club’s net revenue as well as contributions from TABcorp and Casino Canberra.
Initiatives supported by the fund recently included the ACT gambling counselling and support service, which is a free service offering confidential face-to-face, telephone and online counselling services for people experiencing gambling harm, as well as for the family or friends who might also be experiencing harm. Individual relationship and financial counselling is available through Relationships Australia, which operates the service. Gambling Help Online provides residents of the ACT with 24/7 access to online gambling counselling and support. Of course, it funds Gambling Harm Awareness Week, which provides an opportunity for the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission to raise community awareness about the range and extent of gambling harm here in the territory.
Consistent with the Parliamentary and Governing Agreement for the Tenth Assembly, the government does have a significant harm minimisation policy agenda which will consider the most effective way for the government to reduce further harm minimisation measures. Of course, those commitments are well known, but they include targeting a further reduction in the number of gaming machine authorisations to 3½ thousand by 1 July 2025, with additional incentives where a venue goes completely pokie free, and the bet limits and load-up limits which I referred to earlier.
In the remarks that Ms Orr delivered on behalf of Dr Paterson she noted the national consumer protection framework. As has been flagged, whilst legislative and regulatory responsibility for online gambling and advertising is the responsibility of the commonwealth on the whole, the ACT government believes it has a role to play in advocating for, and playing its part in working towards, these national reforms.
That is why we are working with the commonwealth and other state and territory governments through an intergovernmental committee to implement the national consumer protection framework for online wagering, commonly and more easily known as the national framework. This was developed jointly by the commonwealth
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