Tasmania is adopting new rules that will limit serving alcohol to customers in pubs and casinos who are actively playing gambling machines, usually called pokies.
The Tasmanian Hospitality Association is calling the new rules harsh and restrictive.
The new rules are scheduled to go into effect May 1. They prohibit pubs from serving customers that are seated, playing or standing at pokies. In casinos, the same restriction applies between 6 p.m. and closing.
Steve Old, a spokesman for the association, said the Aussie state’s gambling harm minimization laws are the toughest in the country and make it harder for people to gamble in a pub or club.
“It is a very harsh code, there are a lot of harm minimization practices within that code and I think a lot of people are not aware of that,” he told the Australia Broadcasting Company.
Other rules going into effect change the maximum amount of money which can be withdrawn from EFTPOS machines in venues with poker machines. A $100 limit will apply to cash withdrawals in pubs and clubs while a $200 limit remains for casinos, ABC’s report said.
“Pubs and clubs do get treated differently to casinos and I know that frustrates those involved,” Old said adding that the withdrawal restriction will especially impact players at pubs.
“You stay in the place with accommodation, eat a meal there, you have a drink at the bar, you can play keno but because they’ve got gaming machines at that venue you can only get $100 out in some regional areas of Tasmania,” he said. “That’s going to be very hard for the tourists and local person.”
The association has formally asked for changes to the new rules.
“We’ve put out case forward and we didn’t get heard so that’s the way it goes and we’ll just have to see how it plays out in reality,” he said.
The new rules come as many Tasmanian politicians are pushing for the complete removal of pokies from pubs.
Tasmanian independent Member for Denison, Andrew Wilke, said the reforms were welcome but they don’t go far enough.
“Any poker machine reform is good and I celebrate it and to place new restrictions on cash withdrawals and the service of alcohol obviously that will help some people,” he said.
But Wilke also said the new rules are simply a Band Aid and the State Government needs to go further.
“The sort of reform that is needed is $1 maximum bets, limits on jackpots and even a mandatory pre-commitment system where people set limits and those limits are enforced on the machines,” Wilke told ABC.
