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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (3 December) . . Page.. 4530 ..

GAMBLING INDUSTRY - SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACT STUDY

Debate resumed from 9 April 1997, on motion by Mr Whitecross:

That this Assembly calls on the Government to commission and fund a social and economic impact study of gambling in the ACT by an independent researcher. The issues to be examined are to include:

(1) the current state of the gambling industry ie. the number of venues, the facilities and activities at the venues, links between location and patterns of gambling and the contribution of the gaming industry to Government revenue;

(2) the social and economic profile of gamblers, eg. gender, age, ethnicity, income;

(3) the incidence of people with addictive or excessive gambling problems;

(4) the effects of gambling on household income, family breakdown, homelessness, emotional and financial problems, socially dysfunctional behaviour, suicide rates, vulnerable groups such as youth, unemployed, retired, non-English speaking background, and bankruptcy;

(5) the adequacy of support services available for problem gamblers and related social and welfare services eg. financial counselling, the effectiveness of community awareness and educational programs relating to gambling, and community attitudes towards gambling;

(6) the impact of gambling on other social and economic activities such as sport and other forms of entertainment, business and retail activities, employment (employment directly and indirectly related to the gaming industry), tourism, and recreational and leisure expenditure figures including and excluding gaming expenditure; and

(7) the economic and social costs and benefits of an extension of gaming machines.

MR WHITECROSS (9.47), in reply: Mr Speaker, I will add only one thing to what I said earlier about this motion. There seems to be a sentiment that there was not time to have this inquiry now; so we should vote against it, but consider it in the future. I just want to put on record that the Labor Party does not accept that argument.

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