ADDITIONAL COMMENTS BY COALITION SENATORS
Coalition
Senators participating in this inquiry acknowledge the devastating economic and
social impacts of problem gambling in Australia and the commensurate need for governments to
act to contain and reduce this problem. Evidence presented at the inquiry makes
clear the need for cross-government cooperation and high quality data
collection to be prominent in our armoury in dealing with this issue.
Coalition
Senators endorse the recommendation in the body of the report in so far as it
recommends that the Poker Machine Harm Reduction Tax (Administration) Bill
2008 and the ATM's and Cash Facilities Bill 2008 not be passed at
this time. However, we believe that there are elements of the Poker Machine
Harm Minimisation Bill 2008 which do warrant further immediate
consideration and which, if applied uniformally across the nation, would have
some beneficial impact on the level of problem gambling. The Poker Machine
Harm Minimisation Bill 2008 contains a suite of measures addressed to
design features of EGMs and the way they are deployed which may encourage or
promote problem gambling. The bill inter alia limits the size of bets
placed on EGMs in certain circumstances, limits the use of other devices which
stimulate a gambler’s interest in continuing to place bets and prohibits
jackpots of greater than $2000.
The
inquiry heard that a number of these measures already exist in the legislation
of some jurisdictions. Some of these measures have been applied for several
years to minimise problem gambling in some states. While the evidence to the
inquiry was inconclusive as to whether these measures in toto decreased
the effect of problem gambling, it does appear that at least some of them are
having a positive effect and are accepted within the gambling industry.
Gambling
researcher Professor Jan McMillen submitted that some of
these harm minimisation measures had been undercut "because venues and
patrons take advantage of fundamental flaws and deficiencies in policy
design".[1]
Coalition Senators feel that the application of these measures across the
country, using the best available evidence as to which have been effective in
particular jurisdictions, would be a positive move and would send a strong
signal that government in Australia is prepared to "lift its game" in
dealing with this issue where, all too often, a conflict of interest is
perceived to exist for governments.
Coalition
Senators are not persuaded that these measures would be technically difficult
to engineer or deliver or that they would impose a serious financial burden on
clubs and pubs where these machines are located. On the contrary, we feel that
the passage of such legislation would send a strong signal to Australia's gambling industry
that a fresh take on the scale and nature of our problem with gambling is
warranted, and that this industry needs to be prepared to innovate and
cooperate in achieving reductions in the level of problem gambling.
Senator
Gary Humphries
Senator Judith Adams
Senator
Sue Boyce
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