EXPERTS SEEK MORE DETAILS
THE jury is still out on whether recently-announced State Government measures will significantly protect problem gamblers, says a Monash University gambling researcher.
Charles Livingstone said the State Government should clarify its plans for pre-committed spending limits for players on poker machines.
He said it was unclear if the limits were to be voluntarily set by players as they used their machine - which would be "almost useless" - or if they were based on using a compulsory smartcard.
"If a card-to-play system was properly implemented, that would be an excellent development."
Last week, Premier John Brumby announced that "pre-commitment mechanisms" would be part of all poker machines from 2010.
He said the standard would allow players to decide "how much they're willing to gamble, or how much time they want to spend on the machines before they begin playing."
Eastern Access Community Health regional counselling services director Bernie Durkin supported a smartcard pre-commitment system.
"I'm unsure how the Government intends to implement it but I believe a critical element of its implementation ought be the capacity to set the limit while you're well away from the gambling venue."
Clubs Victoria executive Margaret Kearney said the measures were light on detail, but clubs favoured measures that further improved "responsible service and consumption of the gambling product".
Opposition gaming spokesman Michael O'Brien said the Government's pre-commitment proposal was "half-baked".
ONCE A GAMBLER, ALWAYS A GAMBLER
IT'S been nearly a year since reforming problem gambler Lyn Kaiser has entered a pokies venue.
But she still doesn't dare say she's cured.
Ms Kaiser lost "thousands" of dollars on pokies at venues near her Chadstone home - spending her year's rent of $13,000 at one stage.
She said it took about 18 months of counselling for her to take the most important step of banning herself from pokies venues last June.
"The one thing I'm most proud of is that I can turn around and say I'm a compulsive gambler.
"I won't say I'm no longer one. You're either active or inactive, but always a problem gambler."
She supports most of the State Government's recently-announced measures to curtail problem gambling, especially the ban of ATMs at pokie venues by 2012 and halving maximum bets on all poker machines by 2010.
She said self-imposed spending limits, another promised measure from the State Government, would work only for gamblers who admitted they had a problem.
Though she hasn't played pokies since June, she still feels the occasional twinge when she drives past a venue. She once phoned a venue to complain when she could see its poker machines from the road.
"I don't think they should be in suburban pubs. They should just be in the casino and that's it."
TAVERN DIRECTOR NOT PUT OFF BY APPEAL OUTCOME
A PLAN to move extra poker machines into the Matthew Flinders Taverner in Chadstone may be scuttled by a Court of Appeal precedent set this month.
On March 19, the court overturned a Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal decision to allow more poker machines in a pub in Romsey, north-west of Melbourne.
The court found the tribunal should have taken into account potent community opposition against extra poker machines. ALH Group director Ross Blair-Holt said the ruling could impact on the Matthew Flinders Taverner's application for 21 poker machines to be added to the hotel from other pokies venues in Monash.
The hotel lodged its application to the Victorian Commission of Gambling Regulation after 46 of its 105 machines were removed under a round of regional caps last December.
Mr Blair-Holt said there were "clear differences" between the two applications. "Their case was asking for an increase, we're just asking to move the machines around."
Monash Gambling Taskforce chairwoman Joy Banerji said the community should be the arbiter on machine numbers.
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