Pokies turns into a Victorian election issue
Photograph: Paul Jeffers/AAP
Victorians go the polls in November and moves are afoot to turn poker machine and gambling into an election issue.
The Alliance for Gambling Reform is using ratepayers’ money to fund a political campaign calling for tighter regulation of poker machines.
The campaign already has the backing of Brimbank Council which has a high concentration of poker machines. At last count, there were more than 280 across seven venues, some which are open until 5am.
New data from the state’s gambling regulator released last Friday showed Victorians lost $2.7 billion to poker machines in the 2017-18 financial year, the largest increase in losses in a decade. And the biggest losses were in Brimbank where punters lost $139.5 million in 12 months, or about $380,000 a day.
“We see the harm [poker machines] are doing, that’s why we’re saying we need change,” Brimbank councillor Virginia Tachos, told Guardian Australia. “It’s destroying the fabric of our community.”
The pokies campaign comes after the Tasmanian ALP vowed to scrap all poker machines from pubs and clubs in election on the Apple Isle. Ultimately, it was a strategy that failed and Labor lost the election.
The Victorian campaign also coincides with the state passing tough new political donations laws on Thursday night.
“Any leader who isn’t a puppet of the gaming industry would say this is health [risk] minimisation,” Tim Costello, the spokesman for the Alliance for Gambling Reform, told Guardian Australia.
His group has demanded a reduction in maximum bets from $5 to $1 (the maximum is $10 in New South Wales), and regulating venues so they can only open for 14 hours a day, rather than the current maximum of 20.
The Greens are also looking to campaign on the pokies issue which could be critical with the Andrews government’s sitting on a one-seat majority.
The Victorian Greens leader, Samantha Ratnam, told the media on Friday that pokies reform would be a key demand if there was a hung parliament leading to negotiations with Andrews and the Victorian Liberal leader, Matthew Guy.
Leon Gettler - 30th July 2018
