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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 9 Hansard (22 August) . . Page.. 3182 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

average take on each of the machines in the clubs that are open 24 hours a day during the prescribed period is $3.40. The Chief Minister tells us that that represents 2.4 per cent of the average daily takings from each of those machines. He suggests that we are talking about an annual sum of about $87,000 a year in revenue taken during these proposed proscribed hours. This is in the context of a gaming revenue of what, $31 million? We are talking about closing down clubs for three hours a night in some sort of unsubstantiated belief that the $87,000 that is spent on gaming machines during the proscribed period is all attributable to problem gamblers without a single skerrick of evidence that any problem gambler frequents clubs between the hours of 4 am and 8 am. The Chief Minister then glossed over the impact on staff.

Let's just look at what we are doing. The maximum number of machines played between 4 am and 8 am in the club that the Chief Minister quoted, one of the four largest clubs in the ACT, was 16. The average number during the week was seven. We are closing down clubs-

Mr Humphries: We are not closing down the clubs. They can stay open.

MR STANHOPE: They can stay open, but they can't game and they can't sell alcohol. So we are closing down this operation for four hours because the average usage-

Mr Humphries: Three hours.

MR STANHOPE: For three hours in a four-hour period. The average number of poker machines used in the largest club is seven. The average use of poker machines during the period is seven. Seven people. I would have thought that before we took this measure the ACT clubs or the Gambling and Racing Commission might have been able to give us some advice on whether any of the seven people who are turning up in the eight or nine clubs have been identified by any of those clubs as chronic gamblers.

Do we know whether any of the seven people who turn up during these hours to play gaming machines are chronic gamblers? We have absolutely no idea. We have no idea at all. This is just hit and miss. This is just a case of saying, "Look, we've got a problem with gambling. Let's stop gambling between 5 am and 8 am because seven people a night, in each of eight clubs, gamble during those hours." Let's not worry about the fact that those clubs will close during those hours. Mr Rugendyke says, "So what?"

Mr Rugendyke: I beg your pardon. I did not.

MR STANHOPE: I beg your pardon, I thought you said, "So what?" I'm sorry mate, I thought you did. I was concerned at the way in which the Chief Minister glossed over the impact of effectively forcing the closure of the clubs during those hours.

Mr Humphries: There is no impact. That was the point of my comments. There is no impact.

MR STANHOPE: But there is an impact. ClubsACT suggests that as many as 40 or 50 jobs or part-time jobs will or may be lost as a result of this.

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