The state of New South Wales (NSW) is set to fully move to cashless pokies. Apart from that, players will be required to sign in for a special gambling card issued by the Government as part of what has been described as the most significant gaming reform in the history of the state.
The aforementioned changes will basically mean that local gamblers will be required to register to the service and pre-load money to the Government-issued card that would operate pretty much like the NSW’s cashless Opal cards that are used in the public transport network. Moreover, the card would be connected to the exclusion register of the state, under which thousands of people were able to ban themselves from gambling services. It would be the Privacy Commissioner that would be engaged in designing and overseeing the cards.
Victor Dominello, the senior cabinet minister who is responsible for gambling, has received cross-bench support for the proposed changes in the Upper House, including from Mark Latham from One Nation and the Greens. Their support would make sure the proposed legislation changes can pass without facing serious hurdles on their way.
For the time being, there are 95,000 poker machines in the state of New South Wales, which bring AU$1 billion in state taxes on an annual basis. They have created about 100,000 jobs. However, customer spending on the machines is increasing and continued to do so during the coronavirus lockdown. According to government reports, local players’ expenditures on the machines rose by 12%, or over AU$200 million between June and August in comparison to the same period a year ago.
NSW Authorities Release New Draft Bill Aimed at Minimising Gambling Harm
Last week, Minister Dominello released a draft of a piece of legislation aimed at gambling-harm minimisation. The proposed piece of legislation, which suggested that problem gamblers could be identified by using special facial recognition technology, is to be subject to public consultation.
The draft bill does not include the gambling card proposal, but, according to reports, Mr Dominello has been having consultations with other Members of Parliament from all parties in order to get their support for it.
On the other hand, NSW clubs and pubs offering poker machines have criticised the draft bill released a week ago and issued warnings that measures such as facial recognition would cost the sector millions in cash at a time when most of them are financially pressed and cannot really afford to spend so much money.
Josh Landis, the boss of Clubs NSW, reminded that the gambling revenue of the sector had suffered a 14% year-on-year decline as a result of the 10-week industry shutdown. According to him, “the middle of a pandemic” was not the right time to unveil new compliance requirements for the sector, which has already been hit hard by the closures related to the coronavirus crisis.
The claims made by Mr Landis have been backed by the NSW Australian Hotels Association that has also warned that local clubs and pubs were already facing difficulties to survive amid the pandemic and the implementation of new regulatory rules that would cost them a lot is not something they would be able to cope with.
Currently, the state of NSW relies on a self-exclusion scheme that is run by the industry. Under the scheme, individuals could ask to be suspended from one or more gaming machine venues across the state. However, neither venues nor individuals are sanctioned in any way for violating such a banning order, so the NSW authorities have decided they need to take further measure to better protect local customers from possible gambling-related harm.
- Author
Daniel Williams
