Page 4247 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 22 September 2010
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Our advice is that overall the 0.75 per cent levy we are proposing is consistent with these jurisdictions and appropriate to provide some of the necessary support services. We are proposing a transition arrangement to this new rate, with a 0.375 per cent levy to apply from 1 January 2011 and the full 0.75 per cent to apply from 1 July 2011. This allows a reasonable transition period for both the Gambling and Racing Commission and licence holders to adjust to the new arrangements.
The issue of problem gambling is not going to go away without significant action to address the problem. Again I refer to the ACTCOSS submission to the productivity inquiry where it said:
Problem gambling is a public health issue.
The current approach to problem gambling funding also raises a broader issue of how problem gambling should be viewed by the community and by governments. The current arrangements assume that problem gambling is an individual malady, which should be responded to on an individual basis once the condition develops.
Such an approach is inadequate. Firstly, gambling is reaching an increasing number of people, with overall ACT expenditure and individual expenditure experiencing significant and steady growth.
Gaming venues and activities are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and a good deal of product development work goes into the design of gaming machines, for example, to maximise their attractiveness to gamblers and hence their financial returns to the host.
These venues and products can be seen to be pre-disposed to maximise gambling. To the extent that some gamblers are potentially vulnerable to gambling addiction, this is not an open and fair situation. Moreover the number of people who are potentially vulnerable to problem gambling is much wider than the actual number who succumb.
The prevention of gambling addiction must be given a high priority, in much the same way that people who are potentially vulnerable to mental illness, for example, can be supported through a variety of preventive measures. Support is also needed for the families of potential or actual problems gamblers, given the seven-fold effect of problem gambling on others.
ACTCOSS is of the view that problem gambling should be designated a public health issue.
It is therefore appropriate that a public officer, the Gambling and Racing Commissioner, be entrusted with the responsibility of distributing, through a transparent and accountable process, funds to run problem gambling services.
We are introducing this bill which, in light of what I have just outlined, is well overdue. In some ways it does not go far enough to address all of the issues identified but it is a start. I note that there has been an indication from the government that it will be tabling amendments to the Gaming Machine Act in the spring sittings, and we
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