The Alliance for Gambling Reform has withdrawn its support for the Victorian Government's trial of poker machine carded play, warning the lack of a timeline and ongoing delays are hurting Victorian families.
The Alliance's Chief Advocate, Tim Costello, said there are now fears that instead of being the first state in Australia to implement mandatory, carded play with pre-commitment in all its pubs and clubs Victoria’s reform process could go the way of NSW and Tasmania where industry pressure has stymied real reform.
"This technology has been implemented at Crown for over 18 months; there is no need for atrial 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,” Rev 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.”
Rev Costello said the Alliance tried to support the Government and to give it the benefit of the doubt - but it has become apparent that there is no longer a clear, planned timeline for the rollout to be completed Victoria-wide.
“When Melissa Horne MP was the minister, she announced all of the timelines for the trials and the rollout. 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’,” Rev. 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.”
Rev. Costello said the glacial approach was staggering given the Government’s own recent report, ‘The Social Cost of Gambling to Victoria 2023’ clearly demonstrated the escalating cost to government, communities, families, business.
The $14.1b in costs to the community identified in the report is a significant contrast to the $7.2b in revenue to industry, and $2.28 in tax revenue to the state in the same year.
Rev Costello has been pushing for reform to protect the community from pokies harm for over 30 years. He said, "We believe the current approach simply reflects a strategy that panders to the gambling industry and is all designed to delay, delay, delay.”
“This harm needs to stop now. It’s out of control, their own reports clearly show that. The state government has the legislative and technological capability to do this today.”
“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?”
Rev. Costello said that information such as the design parameters of the trial, the evaluation framework along with the timeline for the completed landmark reforms rollout would provide greater confidence to the Alliance and the many other interested stakeholders across Victoria - including all of the people who’ve been affected in some way or another by this harmful product - that the Government was serious about preventing gambling harm.
About us:
The Alliance is a national advocacy organisation fighting to reduce gambling harm and to give voice to those who have been impacted by gambling.
Contact details:
Tim Costello is available for interview on 0411 633 446
Martin Thomas, CEO of the Alliance, 077 340 704