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The Andrews government’s announcement this week of reforms to mitigate the harm caused by poker machines in Victoria is long overdue, and the proposed measures are welcome. It is critical that the time lost already is not compounded by tardy delivery or lax enforcement, and that the government not only holds firmly to its commitment but remains open to improving on it.

As Premier Daniel Andrews emphasised at the announcement, there is much at stake. “These machines are the cause of terrible harm,” he said. “Indeed, all of us pay the price … more than $7 billion a year.”

Communities, often those most disadvantaged, are affected by family breakdown, crime, physical and mental health problems and increased suicide rates that are directly attributable to monetary losses incurred through poker machine gambling.

Premier Daniel Andrews: “These machines are the cause of terrible harm.″⁣Credit: Gus McCubbing

As The Age’s investigations into Crown casino revealed, gaming venues have also served as money laundering vehicles for criminals.

The appalling but avoidable social impacts of pokies, and the huge economic costs that flow from them, are well understood by governments. This is why The Age, through our “Chance for change” series of articles, has pushed hard for the state government to take readily available action to mitigate the harm caused by pokies, minimise the potential for more Victorians to be drawn into the web of problem gambling and to make life difficult for money launderers.

This push has become more urgent as the number of Victorians affected by problem gambling has returned sharply to pre-pandemic levels and escalated into crisis. And as senior writer Josh Gordon has reported, the enactment of mitigation measures on Crown that flowed from the Finkelstein royal commission into the casino – including the requirement for mandatory precommitment cards for its 2628 poker machines – has shifted the problem to clubs, pubs and hotels, mostly in Melbourne’s outer suburbs.

City councils in Brimbank and Casey, which are bearing the brunt of the state’s biggest losses from pokies gambling, had implored the state government to create a more level playing field after it became clear the government’s introduction of a “light touch” voluntary precommitment model for pubs and clubs – called YourPlay – was not working.

Although the state was on track for the first time to lose more than $3 billion to gambling in the recent financial year, the state government had continued to deflect calls for more effective action. Until this week.

Daily gambling limits for poker machine users will be enforced in Victoria.Credit: Jason South

Andrews said the government’s crackdown on the state’s 27,372 pokies in pubs, clubs and hotels – combined with the actions on Crown – would make Victoria’s gambling and anti-money laundering measures the toughest in Australia, and possibly the world. While that claim is open to dispute – Tasmania has enacted strict loss limits – the changes are strong and targeted.

Gaming venues will be required to introduce a mandatory precommitment system for all of Victoria’s poker machines, forcing all gamblers to use a card to sign in and set loss limits.

The maximum amount of money a player can feed into a poker machine at any one time – so-called load limits – will be cut from $1000 to $100. The “spin rate” on poker machines will be lowered from the 2.1 seconds per game to three seconds, slowing the pace of gambling to limit losses.

A previous closing hours plan designed to stop players gambling for extensive periods was being exploited by a loophole that allowed patrons to move between venues. It will be shut by the enforcement of new mandatory closure periods between 4am and 10am for gaming machine areas in all venues except Crown casino, which the government says it will introduce in the middle of next year.

The changes are sound, but they would be improved by a commitment to the mandatory requirement for gamblers to use cashless cards, which track wagering histories and make money laundering more difficult.

Other than that starting point for new closing hours, which is vague and at least 12 months away, there is no timeline for implementation of the promised measures, raising concern among anti-gambling campaigners that a government that has been cosy with the clubs lobby may not rush to execute the reforms. The government has conceded that the measures will be subject to thorough consultation with industry via an implementation working group, which is fair enough. But it needs to get cracking.

Questions about the likely effectiveness of the reforms were perhaps answered on Monday when an alarmed clubs lobby insisted that its venues would require compensation if their businesses were detrimentally affected by the government’s proposed measures.

Some community clubs say they provide valuable jobs and financial support to local sporting organisations, and that they would cease to exist without revenue from poker machines. This “social dividend” argument must be examined by the government and better ways found to provide support for needy local organisations. Venues using pokies to redistribute the financial losses of problem gamblers can no longer be the answer.

It is not just community clubs that might struggle to kick their addiction to gambling.

The latest budget figures show the government was expecting to rake in nearly $5.8 billion from pokies over the next four years. The May budget estimated revenue from pokies to be about 4 per cent of total tax revenue in the 2023-24 financial year, falling to 3.7 per cent by 2026-27. The new pokies measures, which were not considered in these estimates, can be expected to put even more pressure on a bottom line that the Commonwealth Games cancellation exposed as parlous.

Having acknowledged “the terrible harm” caused by pokies, Andrews has made a precommitment of his own to reduce the state’s long-time dependence on gambling losses. He must hold his nerve and act quickly.

Patrick Elligett sends an exclusive newsletter to subscribers each week. Sign up to receive his Note from the Editor.

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