Page 1615 - Week 06 - Thursday, 23 July 2020
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We are proud of that work. Given the fierce campaign we saw in 2016 to protect the pokies, not many would have believed we could achieve a 20 per cent reduction in poker machine licences in just one term of the Assembly, but it has been done. I think that in the discussion over the last decade there would not have been many people who said that that was possible.
We know that changes to bet and load limits will make a further and tangible difference for people experiencing gambling harm. The evidence is clear. The takeaways from the 2010 Productivity Commission report still hold true. To quote the report:
Recreational gamblers typically play at low intensity. But if machines are played at high intensity, it is easy to lose $1500 or more in an hour.
The Productivity Commission said:
The amount of cash that players can feed into machines at any one time should be limited to $20 … There are strong grounds to lower the bet limit to around $1 per “button push” instead of the current $5–10. Accounting for adjustment costs and technology, this can be fully implemented within six years.
It was 10 years ago that the Productivity Commission made those remarks, and in the ACT we still do not have $5 limits, let alone the $1 recommended by the commission. These changes can be made, and we should be working with the industry to make them now while we have the opportunity to build a better normal for our community.
Every other jurisdiction, except New South Wales, has moved to limit bet limits to $5 per spin. We have been assured by gaming harm reduction experts that $5 bet limits can be implemented without major technical challenges, and we have seen it occur interstate without financial support from the government.
That is why we are calling on the government to set a clear timetable for transition immediately and to consult with venues around the design of the scheme. Not all clubs are in a position to make the changes now. That is why we have suggested giving venues 18 months to implement the changes. To offset the costs, rebates on gambling tax could be negotiated. The faster a venue makes the transition to bet limits, the greater the level of rebate, to our minds.
This is a measure to protect Canberra families. This year has shown us vividly that protecting our community is more important than protecting our bottom line. We also want to ensure that there is a future for our clubs, not just a future that is premised on extracting money from problem gamblers with machines that are deliberately designed to be addictive. It is not sustainable for clubs to rely on the money of problem gamblers as their lifeline.
If tax incentives are not the way forward then we would be keen to hear from the government about alternative options for making progress on this matter. The ACT Greens want to work with clubs to find other ways to be financially viable, and we know that clubs want to work with us and with the government as well.
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