Advocates Open Letter regarding Poker Machine Reform
Meg welcomed being a recipient of the national and local poker machine reform advocates letter to the Tasmanian Labor and Liberal parties to hold firm and deliver the promised poker machine pre-commitment card, and withstand pressure from the gambling industry.
This work was done by independent apolitical stakeholders, and their contributions in local media can be found below.
The Examiner online | 13 November 2024.
‘Powerful vested interests’ derailing pokies reform, activists claim
Benjamin Seeder
A group of prominent anti-gambling campaigners have written an open letter to Premier Jeremy Rockliff, urging him to press on with a reform that would introduce mandatory poker machine cards with preset loss limits.
The Liberal government unveiled the loss limits card reform back in 2022, but implementation has been delayed.
Mr Ferguson spearheaded the nation-leading reform, which would have required pokies players to use a card with pre-installed loss limits of $100 per day, and $5000 per year.
Since his departure from government, pressure from the gambling industry to drop the reform has intensified, he wrote in a recent opinion piece in a Tasmanian newspaper.
The government has stated that it is still committed to the reform.
Tim Costello, a baptist minister and chief advocate for the Alliance for Gambling Reform – the organisation responsible for the open letter to the government – said it was “devastating” that the loss limits card policy had still not been implemented.
“A mandatory cashless card is absolutely essential to protect people from the damage that we see pokies is doing,” Mr Costello said.
“We need a cashless card and Tasmania was to be, is to be, the first state actually delivering this historic form reform, but it’s up against powerful vested interests.
“To see 90 super-profits pubs now pressuring the premier to defeat this reform is appalling.”
The letter, which was signed by 12 anti-gambling campaigners including Mr Costello, acting CEO of TasCOSS Lucinda Szczypior and Anglicare Tasmania chief executive Chris Jones, urged the Premier and other parliamentarians not to back off the 2022 reform.
“The mandatory card will be effective in reducing harm and preventing addiction and would set a new standard in evidence-based consumer protection,” the letter read.
“It is therefore not surprising that the poker machine industry is fighting against the card, just as it fought against proposals for $1 bet limits, and the earlier iteration of a mandatory pre-commitment card.”
The campaigners claimed that pointed Tasmanian poker machine venues have” benefited substantially” from other gambling reforms introduced in 2023.
“It is these substantial additional profits the poker machine industry is desperately seeking to protect, including through using its influence to secure weighted mechanisms such as the recently revealed Deloitte analysis underway.”
They were referring to a report commissioned by the government on the impact the proposed reform could have on hospitality industry jobs.
Deloitte Access Economics is carrying out the analysis, and opposition parties have recently called on the government to publish the consulting firm’s terms of reference.
The Tasmanian Hospitality Association has lobbied fiercely against the loss limit card reform.
THA chief executive Steve Old said introduction of mandatory loss limits could result in the closure of half of Tasmanian venues with poker machines.
You can read the online article here
Reload document 
Open in new tab Listen to Tim Costello’s, chief advocate for the Alliance for Gambling Reform, ABC morning radio interview here
