Deadline July 2020
The ACT government wants to reduce the number of poker machines in Canberra from 4,985 to 4,000 by July 2020, according to the Canberra Times.
The mandate, if enacted, could compel clubs to hand back about 320 machines per year starting in March 2018. “A gentler option” would require clubs to trim their inventory more gradually, cutting back a total of 230 pokies in 2018, 350 in 2019 and 410 in 2020, the publication reported.
A government study says poker machines, first introduced in 1975, had peaked at 5,200 by the end of 2006, the highest number of gaming machines per capita and the second highest spend in Australia.In 2011, the government announced it would reduce the number of machines to 4,000, and in 2015, devised a plan that allowed clubs to buy, sell and trade machines with one machine lost for every four traded.
The latest plan could include an option to force big clubs to give back more than small clubs, exempting clubs with fewer than 20 machines.
Another plan would cut machines based on profits, with clubs making less than $8,000 per machine exempt; clubs making an average of $8,000 to $25,000 from each machine handing back 16 percent of machines; clubs making $25,000 to $38,000 handing back 20 percent; and clubs making more than that handing back 24 percent. Clubs conceivably get around that option by adding more machines to reduce the revenues per unit. And yet another option would change the trading scheme, with one machine forfeited for every two or three traded.
However the reduction is accomplished, Gaming Minister Gordon Ramsay said the decision to reduce is firm and will move forward.
