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January 18, 2012
The signs are obvious. The Gillard Government is backing away from pokies reform---away from the mandatory pre-commitment scheme for poker machines.
The reason is twofold. First, once the Liberal MP Peter Slipper became the Speaker in the House of Representatives the Gillard Government is no longer dependent on the vote of Andrew Wilkie to remain in power. Secondly, the country independents were not willing to support Wilkies' mandatory pre-commitment scheme.
Andrew Wilkie had demanded that the minority Gillard government force players to set mandatory pre-commitment limits in return for his support for the government, rather than the alternative proposal for maximum bet limits of $1. Labor has dumped that agreement. Reducing the losses of problem gamblers would significantly impact on the profits of the pokies industry.
What is disclosed by the backing away from reform is just how much the ALP has been captured by the gambling industry, and how unwilling it is to address the issue of problem gamblers in a serious fashion. Labor doesn’t care about pokie addiction. No doubt we will hear lots of spin about the benefits of a voluntary pre-commitment system and how counselling really works.
What now? Postpone things to 2016. A fall back to the recommendations of the Productivity Commission's Report? This is a poker machine trial that could push a full reform package (a nationwide mandatory precommitment scheme) out to 2016.
Maybe the states can go it alone on on betting limits. Tasmania is one possibility. It sure won't be NSW because gambling revenue raised $1.7 billion in 2009-10 in that state.
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Labor’s callous disregard for the victims of pokie addiction is now on display.