Sucked into the trap

Once sucked into the trap of expanded gambling, there are NO CORRECTIONS!

Not long ago, a (naive) Massachusetts lawmaker assured me that if expanded gambling didn't work out, we could just refuse to renew the licenses.

It's never been done!

Even Atlantic City renewed licenses of financially defunct Gambling Businesses.
Anything to preserve the revenues!

Local control is sacrificed.

The Government becomes more vested in the partnership with the Gambling Industry than the voters.



Baillieu breaks pokie vow
Farrah Tomazin


THE state government has reneged on an election promise to implement voluntary pre-commitment pokies technology in all Victorian gaming venues by 2013, delaying action on the vow beyond the next state election.

The federal government and the anti-pokies lobby have slammed the decision, with Canberra accusing Victoria of ''passing the buck'' and gambling activists saying there's no reason the state can't get on with it.

But the state government blames Canberra, insisting Julia Gillard's ''political dealing'' on pokies has affected its timeline.


The backflip comes amid growing community concern over the proliferation of poker machines and the gaming regulator's approval last week of an application for a new sports club in Castlemaine with 65 pokies, despite widespread opposition.

Ted Baillieu went to the last election pledging to tackle problem gambling by introducing voluntary precommitment, which gives players the choice to set their own betting limits.

Under the system, those who use the technology will be able to set a limit on how much money they wish to spend, or how long they want to play. Once that limit is reached, gamblers are locked out of play for a period.

As part of the Coalition's election policy, Victoria was meant to have the technology linked within individual gaming venues by 2013. This meant that anyone locked out of play would not have been able to move from one machine to the next. The technology was then supposed to be linked across the state by 2015-16, so that anyone reaching their limit at one venue would be locked out of play at another.

The government says it is still committed to having voluntary precommitment across the state by 2016 - more than a year after the November 2014 state election - but it is no longer ''technically feasible'' to have precommitment within gaming venues by 2013.

Emily Broadbent, a spokeswoman for Gaming Minister Michael O'Brien, said Victoria had been forced to abandon its timeline because the Commonwealth had not yet made clear, in legislation, what kind of technical standards it wanted on state-based precommitment systems.

''As this has not been done, nor has the federal government made clear that states will be permitted to determine these standards themselves without penalty, it is not technically feasible for the Victorian government to require precommitment technology to be linked within venues by 2013,'' Ms Broadbent said.

The policy shift comes two weeks after Ms Gillard ditched her deal with Independent MP Andrew Wilkie for mandatory betting limits on poker machines. The Commonwealth will trial precommitment in the ACT, and hopes to expand the technology to all pokies in the country.

Victoria insists that unless it knows what kind of technical standards the Commonwealth wants, it risks ''imposing unnecessary costs and confusion'' on the gaming industry if it honours its election pledge.

But federal Families Minister Jenny Macklin yesterday accused Mr O'Brien of ''passing the buck''.

''The Commonwealth's plans are no threat to the Victorian government delivering on this election commitment,'' she said.

The Productivity Commission recommends mandatory precommitment is the way to tackle problem gambling. But Victoria, which rakes in $1 billion in pokies taxes a year, claims a voluntary system is better because it respects the right of individuals to make their own decisions.

The gaming industry also prefers voluntary precommitment, but critics say the system fails to give enough credence to the addictive nature of gambling.

Gambling reform advocate Tom Cummings criticised the government for the decision to delay. ''There is absolutely no reason that the Victorian policy and the federal policy can't coexist,'' he said.

Opposition gaming spokesman Martin Pakula said Mr O'Brien shouldn't ''weasel out'' of his earlier commitments.

Productivity Commission figures suggest 115,000 Australians are gambling addicts and a further 280,000 are at risk.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/baillieu-breaks-pokie-vow-20120204-1qz1g.html#ixzz1lRC9L2Hp