Page 1634 - Week 05 - Thursday, 5 May 2016
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What is less often mentioned is that 40 per cent of the money funding these contributions comes from problem gamblers, according to the Productivity Commission. The 2014 ANU prevalence study tells us that 1.5 per cent of the ACT adult population are problem gamblers or moderate-risk problem gamblers. The ANU estimates that that equates to about 4,100 people in our city. Of the $94 million dollars of net gaming machine revenue in 2014-15, if you use that 40 per cent figure, that equates to around $38 million of net gaming machine revenue coming from problem gamblers in our city. These people have families and responsibilities, and they are being driven to a point of desperation by a legal and highly addictive product.
The public accounts inquiry heard evidence from UnitingCare Kippax that for every person with a gambling problem at least seven other people are adversely affected. There is a net gaming machine revenue of $94 million dollars a year. Give or take, $38 million of that comes from problem gamblers, on those Productivity Commission’s figures, and the community gaming model put $11.8 million into community contributions last year. I think that is quite an inefficient redistribution program when one reflects on it that way, and certainly NATSEM research has indicated that gambling taxes are overwhelmingly the most regressive form of taxation.
The existing gambling landscape in the ACT causes a great deal of gambling harm, and the Greens want to see that harm reduced. Members may recall my dissenting report to the PAC clubs inquiry last year which called for a range of improved gambling harm minimisation measures to be introduced into the community gaming model. Both Liberal and Labor members of the inquiry chose not to support those proposals.
For the record, my recommendations called for the introduction of $1 maximum bets on pokies, a maximum loss rate of $120 per hour, an increase to the problem gambling assistance fund levy, a $250 withdrawal limit for EFTPOS machines, a cash load-up limit and an increase to community contributions. These measures would have significantly enhanced the ACT’s gambling harm minimisation framework and would have helped deliver a community gaming model that did not prey on a small section of the community.
The PAC inquiry also heard that many ACT community clubs are almost entirely dependent on gambling revenue for their continued viability. This is not a new problem but it is a problem brought into sharp focus when we consider that poker machine revenue has entered what can arguably be called a terminal decline. A combination of factors such as the rise of online sports betting and the decline of cigarette smoking means that it is only a matter of time before pokie revenue will not be able to financially underpin many ACT club venues.
It is a stark reality of our time that the community gaming model is becoming less important in the ACT. In fact, that was the fundamental purpose of the public accounts committee inquiry, to investigate elements impacting on the future of the ACT clubs sector. All parties here participated in that inquiry and we know that
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