Page 3037 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 16 September 2015
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Wednesday, 16 September 2015
MADAM SPEAKER (Mrs Dunne) took the chair at 10 am and asked members to stand in silence and pray or reflect on their responsibilities to the people of the Australian Capital Territory.
Lotteries Amendment Bill 2015
Mr Wall, pursuant to notice, presented the bill and its explanatory statement.
Title read by Clerk.
MR WALL (Brindabella) (10.01): I move:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
The bill I present today is the right move to meet the expectations of the community in 2015 with respect to how widely available gambling products such as lottery tickets and instant scratches should be in our community. The basis for introducing this bill is borne out of the recent expiration of a memorandum of understanding made between the New South Wales government and Tattersall’s when the New South Wales government sold their state-owned lotteries. The MOU placed a number of conditions on Tatts’s ability to expand their network into various retail spaces such as supermarkets and service stations. This MOU expired at the beginning of this year and featured as a prominent issue in the last New South Wales state election.
It is important to note that whilst the MOU covered the sale of lotteries products in New South Wales it did not apply here in the ACT, and to date no restrictions are in place regarding who can be engaged to sell lottery products. Historically, though, the ACT has informally mirrored the practice of New South Wales given the small size of the market in comparison.
In recent weeks there have been a number of announcements with regard to the introductions of lotteries retail into a number of supermarket-owned service station sites within the ACT. It is anticipated that the first wave of this expansion will see up to six service stations selling lottery products within the territory—that is, more than a 10 per cent increase in the number of outlets in the first stage alone
The recent announcement has allowed for a fair amount of public debate on a number of issues, such as how widely available should forms of gambling be within our community, what the best approach is to harm minimisation, and who should be able to form a business for the purposes of selling lottery products.
The retail network for lotteries products in the ACT is currently made up of 46 outlets. They are all small business and predominantly newsagencies. However, there is also a number of dedicated lottery kiosks, a liquor store and even a small independent grocery outlet. These businesses are largely owner operated, meaning the person who owns the business is largely working in the business on a daily basis. These
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