Following the release of the final report of the Productivity Commission on Australia’s gambling industries, in December 1999 the then Prime Minister of Australia announced that the government would undertake a range of measures to increase the priority given to the prevention and treatment of problem gambling within the Government’s own social policy programmes. These measures were to include new approaches to informing and helping Australians from particular groups with special needs, such as youth, veterans, Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders and people from culturally diverse backgrounds.

More recently the present Prime Minister has agreed to work with the states and territories to introduce a full pre-commitment scheme for poker machines by 2014, with the intention of addressing problem gambling. A joint select committee was established this week to tackle problem gambling, which was part of a deal to elicit support for the formation of the minority government.

On 29 September, South Australia’s Senator Nick Xenophon was granted a second reading of his bill for interim measures to reduce losses on poker machines. The bill will limit the maximum bet on any spin to $1 and will adjust spin rates and volatility of machines to ensure problem gamblers cannot lose more than $120 an hour. In his speech the Senator said, “I stress that this would only be an interim measure, but one which will make a significant difference to the rate of loss on these addictive machines, and will complement other reforms to the industry such as the introduction of comprehensive pre-commitment schemes which the Gillard Government has adopted as part of its agreement with Independent MP for Denison, Andrew Wilkie.”

Xenophon added that he ran for the South Australian Parliament thirteen years ago on an anti-poker machine platform. The Gillard Government’s landmark announcement that it will intervene if the States do not introduce a uniform and full pre-commitment system by June 2011 is a clear sign that the major parties agree that problem gambling needs to be addressed. Andrew Wilkie has said that if the government reneges on the poker machine agreement it would throw in doubt his support for the government in supply and no-confidence motions. Debate on the bill has been adjourned.

A proposal to fingerprint pokies players and require them to carry USB memory sticks recording their fingerprints has caused an angry reaction from operators of the gaming machines. Another proposal is for smartcards that impose daily limits for gamblers. Industry sources estimate that nationally $2 billion a year is laundered through hotel, club and casino poker machines and gambling chips, with as much as 40% of this laundered in New South Wales. The proposed anti-problem gambling measures, tracking play on pokies, should prove a deterrent to money laundering.

Clubs Australia has called for the technology requiring a fingerprint scan before playing a poker machine to be ruled out. The association maintains it would treat gamblers like criminals and cause a $2 billion annual reduction in machine revenue. However, Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin told a Melbourne radio station that trials proved that pre-commitment technology can be effective. "It's a bit of a scare campaign that's being put about by those who don't want this pre-commitment system put in place.” She added, “There's going to be a ministerial advisory committee that'll have technical representatives on it [and] will have those concerned with problem gambling on it. It will also have people from the clubs and hotels industries on the committee so that we can work through what a practical solution will be." (E-10.01.10)

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