The Government of Premier Daniel Andrews is once again considering a promise to implement maximum loss and time limits for the players of Crown Resorts’ pokies.
In 2021, the Royal Commission headed by Ray Finkelstein, QC, made a recommendation for stricter rules to be imposed so that problem gamblers are given the chance to reduce their losses. Some of the proposed measures included mandatory limits on the time and money spent by customers on the 2,628 poker machines in Crown Melbourne.
According to reports, in 2019/2020, poker machines generated a total of AU$844 million in tax money, while casino taxes over the same period were estimated at a further AU$149 million. At the time Commissioner Finkelstein tabled his 33 recommendations, the Andrews Government said it supported all of them “in principle”.
Despite that, the pre-commitment recommendation for the aforementioned limits on the time and money spent on Crown’s pokies has been facing the Department of Justice and Community Safety’s opposition. The Department has backed its resistance by giving a similar mandatory system that was officially rolled out in Canada’s province of Nova Scotia in 2012 but then dumped in 2014 because it did little to tackle gambling addiction rates.
Victorian Government Supports the 33 Gambling Recommendations of Royal Commissioner “In Principle”
At the time when he issued his report on Crown Melbourne’s performance and operations, Commissioner Finkelstein criticised the Australian gambling giant’s approach to problem gambling.
The investigation of the Royal Commission said that the existing voluntary pre-commitment system of the Government, YourPlay, had pretty much been useless when it came to a small take-up rate. Another problem was the fact that the operator had no legal obligation to take action once a player had reached their limit.
That is exactly why Commissioner Finkelstein made a recommendation that Crown Melbourne should replace the YourPlay system with a full, mandatory, pre-commitment system for local residents who gamble on the casino’s pokies. According to him, players of Crown Melbourne should be obliged to set weekly or monthly limits on the amount of time and money spent on the casino’s electronic gaming machines. He also suggested that casino patrons should be banned from the poker machines in Crown Melbourne for more than 12 hours in any 24-hour period.
If the proposed measure is officially rolled out by the Andrews Government, the state of Victoria would have the strictest mandatory pre-commitment rules in the country.
As Casino Guardian previously reported, in 2021, the Government of Victoria passed legislation related to 9 of the recommendations made by Commissioner Finkelstein. The authorities have promised to pass the second batch of legislation on the remaining 24 recommendations of the Royal Commission by the end of 2022.
However, so far there have been not many details on how or when the new regulatory system is set to be introduced.
Could Andrews Government Be Backing Away from Proposed Gambling Harm Minimisation Measures?
A spokeswoman of Melissa Horne, the Gaming Minister, has explained that the local Government was well aware of how complex the remaining recommendations of Commissioner Finkelstein were, so it would undertake further detailed analysis and consultation. The spokeswoman also noted that the promised second tranche of legislation would deliver the final recommendations of the Royal Commission.
This is not the first time when the idea of mandatory pre-commitment for setting time and spending limits has faced some controversy in Australia.
More than a decade ago, the Government of Premier Julia Gillard tried to roll out a 2010 Productivity Commission recommendation for mandatory pre-commitment but the idea was crashed as a result of an extremely lobbyist campaign by local clubs. Now, the recommendation of Commissioner Finkelstein goes even further than the measure that was proposed in 2010, with default time and loss limits in use.
The Labor Government, however, has faced some criticism associated with the proposed measures and the softer approach it has taken in terms of Crown Resorts and minimisation of problem gambling.
Charles Livingstone, a gambling expert from Monash University, said that the fact that the proposed mandatory time and spending limit system was not included in the first tranch of legislation, suggested that the Government was taking a step back from the key reforms seeking minimisation of gambling-related harm. He further noted that it would not be so hard for the Victorian Government to convert the state’s voluntary pre-commitment approach into the mandatory system that was recommended by the Commissioner. According to Dr Livingstone, such a move would have a huge impact on tackling the rates of gambling-related harm in the state.
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Daniel Williams
