Productivity Commission’s Draft Report focuses on poker machines
The Productivity Commission’s much-anticipated report on gambling in Australia has focussed on poker machines and harm minimisation legislations for the nation’s punters.
The Commission handed down it s 600-page Draft Report on October 21 with public hearings to be held in November and December and a final report released next February.
In the Draft Report’s 28-page “Overview”, the Commission defines poker machines as the major problem in Australia's $18 billion gambling industry.
Key recommendations in the Draft Report include gamblers being able to sue venues that encourage them to play despite knowing they have an addiction. It recommends that the new laws also should introduce penalties for venue operators that induce gamblers to continue playing.
A key recommendation is that gamblers be restricted to maximum bets of $1 per play on poker machines.
The Commission said all states should have a cap in place by 2016 when Victoria planned to implement “pre-commitment” technology for poker machine players.
Commission Chairman Gary Banks said that under a cap system, gamblers would nominate an amount they were prepared to lose. On reaching their limit, there would need to be a “cooling-off period” before they could use the machines again.
It also called for online gaming to be legalised, which would enable the Government to better regulate the industry. Online gambling and its hidden threat to gamblers was a cornerstone of the Clubs Australia submission to the Productivity Commission last year.
The anti-gambling campaigners Nick Xenophon and Tim Costello welcomed the proposed limit on bet size but criticised the “opt out” clause.
The Commission has requested public feedback about what form this new civil law should take.
The Draft Report found Australians spend about $18 billion a year gambling, including $12 billion on poker machines. About 15 % of Australians gamble regularly and problem gamblers make up about 10% of that group. The money share that problem gamblers play on poker machines accounts for around 40% of that $12 billion figure.
The Commission said that while there had been progress on problem gambling over the past decade, governments could do more to make gaming machines safer.
It recommends a $1 per bet limit on all poker machines, to limit the amount people can lose each hour to $120, and a $20 cash limit that a person can put into a poker machine at any given time.
It also calls for a universal “opt-out” system that allows people to set the amount of money and time they spend gambling.
ATMs near poker machines should only be able to distribute a maximum of $200 per card per day and all prize money should be paid in cheques not cash.
The Commission wants the restrictions in place by 2016.
Clubs, hotels and state governments that rely on revenue and taxes derived from gambling would lose out under the proposed reforms, but the industry would remain large by international standards.
In some cases, the Commission said, gamblers were losing more than $65,000 a month playing poker machines. To slow their losses, it recommended cutting the maximum amount that could be fed into machines from as high as $10,000 to $20.
Federal Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin said the Government would consider the Commission's final report, due on February 26. “We know that we need to make changes but let's base the changes we make on good evidence,” Ms Macklin said.
To read a full version of the Productivity Commission’s Draft Report on Gambling, go to http://www.pc.gov.au/projects/inquiry/gambling-2009/draft
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