A leading gambling-reform body has withdrawn support for a State Government trial of poker machine carded play in Greater Dandenong.
The Alliance for Gambling Reform cited the lack of a timeline, ongoing delays as well as the lack of mandatory pre-commitment of loss limits for card users.
The Alliance’s chief advocate Tim Costello, said there are now fears that industry pressure was stymying real reform.
It had been hoped Victoria could be the first state in Australia to implement mandatory, carded play with pre-commitment in all its pubs and clubs, he said.
“This technology has been implemented at Crown for over 18 months; there is no need for a trial and certainly it is a complete waste of time to have a trial where the pre-commitment feature that could cap your losses is not mandatory,” Costello said.
“The loopholes in this proposed Victorian trial now almost guarantee low rates of uptake and thus limited or even useless data in relation to limit setting.
“We don’t even feel we know what they’re actually trialling or why.”
It comes after Greater Dandenong Council expressed disappointment at the trial’s non-mandatory commitment.
It was poised to consider whether also to withdraw support from the trial, rolling out in all 43 venues with gaming machines in Monash, Greater Dandenong and Ballarat from September to November.
People gambling at these venues will need to use a YourPlay card to play electronic gaming machines and can set loss limits – which Gaming Minister Enver Erdogan said would help “people take control of their gambling and make better choices”.
Costello said there was no longer a clear, planned timeline for the rollout to be completed Victoria-wide.
“Since the cabinet reshuffle in December, the previous timelines have been dropped and the new minister, Enver Erdogan MP is not making any firm commitments to the timeline to get this all done,” he said.
Other concerns include that the Government has not published either a design scope for the trial, or an evaluation framework.
They also have not committed to publishing the evaluation report.
“These reforms were announced over two years ago, and Premier Daniel Andrews stood next to a grandmother who had lost just about everything because of pokies, and he announced these ‘landmark reforms’,” Costello said.
“I wonder if anyone who had anything to do with these wretched machines would feel like Victoria is implementing ‘landmark reforms’?
“Last year’s losses were another new record, $3.14 billion. They’re just letting it go on, unabated.”
Costello said the Government’s recent report, ‘The Social Cost of Gambling to Victoria 2023’ clearly demonstrated the escalating cost to government, communities, families, business.
The $14.1 billion in costs to the community outstripped the $7.2 billion in revenue to industry, and $2.28 billion in tax revenue in the same year.
“We believe the current approach simply reflects a strategy that panders to the gambling industry and is all designed to delay, delay, delay,” Costellos said.
“And if the Premier and Minister won’t make a commitment right now to a date in the very near future to see the whole system with mandatory pre-commitment switched on across the state, every Victorian should be asking themselves, ‘Why?’
“Who benefits from that?”
