gambling reform & gambling harm awareness
When I heard the news yesterday that the Victorian government was announcing new poker machine reforms, I was understandably interested. There hadn’t been any warning that an announcement was on the cards… what kind of reforms were they going to announce? After years of inertia and tinkering around the edges, were we finally going to see some change that really mattered?
Short answer: no.
They’re NSW’s dirty dozen: 12 registered clubs that in any other country would be called casinos. Enormous entertainment complexes that between them operate close to seven thousand poker machines, make almost one billion dollars in gambling revenue every year… yet call themselves not-for-profit organisations and enjoy lucrative tax concessions from the state government.
The biggest pokies pub in the City of Casey has just applied for 10 more poker machines… and this local resident is determined to make sure it doesn’t succeed.
Two new pubs are planned for Melbourne’s south-east… and they couldn’t be more different.
This is incredibly disappointing. Lifeline boss Carrie Leeson has taken a position on the board of a new clubs lobby group in the ACT, which not only represents clubs with over 1000 poker machines but is also calling for access to automated casino-style gambling in clubs.
On the weekend, the government leaked the news that they were planning to ban gambling ads during live sport broadcasts.
Officer is a small suburb in the Shire of Cardinia, deep in Melbourne’s south-east. Nestled in between Beaconsfield and Pakenham, it’s part of Melbourne’s expanding growth corridor… and bizarrely, that puts it at threat from Victoria’s poker machine industry.
Losses on Victoria’s poker machines have jumped to a 4-year high amid renewed calls for more effective action on gambling reform.
Victoria’s new voluntary pre-commitment card for poker machines looks set to be declared a dud, with pokies losses increasing since the scheme began.
Australians are gambling more than ever before… and the gambling industry says they’re baffled by the surge in losses.
It’s December 1. Apart from being the first day of summer, that also means it’s the first day of Yourplay, the Victorian government’s much-hyped pre-commitment system for poker machines.
Clubs NSW have announced today that they are dropping their defamation case against Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, just days after declaring they had commenced legal proceedings.
It’s been five years since the 2010 federal election. Five years since Julia Gillard shook hands with Andrew Wilkie and agreed to legislate poker machine reforms, thereby gaining his support and allowing Labor to form a minority government.
There’s a lot of talk going around at the moment concerning the GST. Will it go up? Will it be expanded? Some of this talk has focused on poker machines… which is no surprise, given the way the GST is allocated, and the amount of money lost on gaming machines every year. But do you know the whole picture?
Losses on Victoria’s 26,300 poker machines are rising. Three months into the new financial year, figures from the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) show that we’re losing more money faster, and heading back towards record levels of spending.
