Only Monaco has more machines than NSW, ACT
Despite a new cap on poker machines in Canberra, the capital city of Australia will still have more machines per adult than any state or territory besides New South Wales, according to a report in the Canberra Times. Gaming Minister Joy Burch has claimed the cap will result in the “biggest reduction in gaming machines numbers in history.”
The government wants to reduce the ratio to 15 machines for every 1,000 people, the Times reported. The most recent national figures for 2012-13 indicate Canberra had 4,974 poker machines, or 17 machines per 1,000 people. By comparison, Victoria has six machines per 1,000 people, and Queensland has 13.
The ACT government has linked the number and availability of gaming machines to problem gambling. In 2012, former Deputy Chief Minister Andrew Barr set out a goal of reducing the total number of machines to 4,000. Burch prefers a ratio of machines to population.
Only New South Wales has more poker machines; in fact, Australian Churches Gambling Taskforce Chairman Tim Costello says NSW “has the most poker machines of anywhere in the world.”
“Ten percent of the world’s poker machines are in NSW, so the ACT being almost on a par is just socially devastating,” he said. “It’s a complete failure by the ACT government to allow that level of what is not just a social recreation but dangerous machines.”
The industry’s World Count of Gaming Machines shows the ACT and NSW among world leaders in the number of machines per capita. Of 49 European countries, only Monaco has more gaming machines per capita. Of 72 states across Canada, the United States and Australia, only four US states have a higher number of machines per capita than NSW and the ACT.
Meanwhile, the ACT government just increased the note limit on poker machines from $20 to $50, prompting concerns that it would encourage problem gambling, reported Australia’s ABC News.
“In Queensland a few years ago they altered the note acceptor configuration so the machines would only accept $20 notes up to the value of $100,” said Monash University gambling researcher Dr. Charles Livingstone. “And that had a big impact on both expenditure and the behavior of people with gambling problems.
“People who are in the grip of a gambling problem or are starting one, tend to lose control of just how much money they can spend, and spend everything they have got and then some,” he said.
Salvation Army Canberra Recovery Services Centre manager Scott Warrington agreed that the decision was a mistake. “People are just able to devalue the dollar to the point where they can just swallow a $50 note,” he said, calling the move “a step backwards.”
Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the ACT Government had done a lot to tackle problem gambling including a reduction in poker machine numbers. “We’ve enacted the strongest harm-minimization regime that this territory has ever seen,” he said.
But Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson said the Labor Party “funds its elections campaigns out of pokie money. That is morally bankrupt.”
