The representative body of clubs in the state of New South Wales (NSW) – ClubsNSW – has released a draft Gaming Code of Practice aimed at establishing an independent panel to determine if a certain exclusion was appropriate or not. The suggested panel would determine the actual length of the suspension.
Under the proposed measure, a designated responsible gambling officer would be appointed to every club across the state.
Employees of NSW clubs would also be given advanced training that would help them recognise signs of gambling addiction. Such indicators can include borrowing money from other players, seeking credit for gambling, or admitting to stealing money to gamble. On the other hand, players who show serious signs of problem gambling would be offered professional help for dealing with their compulsive behaviour or would be potentially suspended from clubs offering gambling options.
Josh Landis, CEO of the NSW clubs’ representative body, noted that ClubsNSW had been advocating for a system that would allow family members to intervene to tackle gambling-related harm to their loved ones since 2012. He explained that families are best placed to know if someone needs help to deal with ongoing problems or is generally in trouble. According to Mr Landis, the Gaming Code of Practice would make sure that all clubs in New South Wales operate in line with standards that are higher than the regular legal requirements, providing members, players, and the broader community with some relief that people could still feel safe in local clubs.
NSW Clubs’ Representative Body Faces Criticism over Links to Political Donations
Unfortunately, ClubsNSW has faced a lot of criticism, as its proposal that would provide problem gamblers’ families to request they be suspended from NSW clubs has been described only as a good-looking facade aimed at covering up the actual face of the industry.
Tim Costello, a long-time anti-gambling advocate from the Alliance for Gambling Reform (AGR), believed that the aforementioned proposal was a seemingly positive concession that actually accounted for what he described as “window dressing”. Mr Costello suspected that the former gaming minister of the state, Victor Dominello, could have proposed a digital wallet in a move that would unveil gambling addiction in the state in real-time only as a product of the ugly face of the industry group. He further noted that the entire model of ClubsNSW depended on problem gamblers.
Apart from that, Mr Costello pointed out that the gambling, and more specifically, the video gaming industry in New South Wales, has always been favoured by political parties because gambling operators have been among the largest donors of political campaigns across the state. This is exactly the reason why he remains doubtful there is anyone on the proposed panel who could act as a truly independent party.
There have been some previous attempts to tackle gambling in New South Wales, with some self-exclusion laws being unveiled to provide patrons who find it hard to control their gambling with the chance to ban themselves from gambling. Unfortunately, a 2020 investigation of ABC News found only one occurrence of a fine or prosecution that was initiated as a result of failures to stick to self-exclusion policies.
- Author
Daniel Williams
