The NSW Government has welcomed the NSW Auditor General’s Performance Audit into regulation of gaming machines under the Gaming Machines Act 2001, with both relevant Government agencies accepting its recommendations.
The audit assessed the effectiveness of the regulation of gaming machines in clubs and hotels, with a focus on harm minimisation requirements.
In NSW, the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) and the Department of Creative Industries, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport (the Department) share responsibility for regulating gaming machines in clubs and hotels.
The audit found that the Department and ILGA regulate gaming machines in a structured and consistent manner, but were failing to support harm minimisation outcomes effectively.
“The Department has a regulatory strategy that sets out its priorities clearly. It has communicated this to stakeholders. However, the strategy does not have a sufficient focus on the areas that are considered high-risk for gambling harm and does not set targets for reducing harm associated with gaming machines. Gaming machine losses and the social costs of gambling harm continue to be disproportionately concentrated in socio-economically disadvantaged communities,” the report states.
“ILGA and the Department have clear processes for assessing applications to operate gaming machines. However, ILGA does not proactively review licence conditions after they are granted.”
It found that most venues that have the largest number of gaming machines have not had their licence conditions reviewed in recent years and are operating gaming machines with licence conditions that may not be consistent with contemporary approaches to harm minimisation.
The Auditor General made two key recommendations, that:
- the Department should increase the focus of its regulatory strategy on improving harm minimisation outcomes and ensure the gaming machine forfeiture scheme is achieving its legislative objectives
- ILGA should commence periodic reviews of licence conditions for venues operating gaming machines and increase clarity to industry and other stakeholders about the reasons for its decisions.
In a statement following the report’s release, the NSW Government said it takes harm minimisation seriously and had already implemented a number of initiatives, including:
- Reducing the cash input limit from $5,000 to $500 for all new gaming machines from 1 July 2023;
- Continuing to reduce the state-wide cap on gaming machine entitlements, so that every year the number of gaming machines reduces based on forfeiture rates from June 2023;
- Banning external gaming-related signage and internal gaming-related signage that can be seen from outside the venue from 1 September 2023;
- Introducing Responsible Gambling Officers in venues with more than 20 gaming machine entitlements from 1 July 2024;
- Mandating that all venues with gaming machines must keep a Gaming Plan of Management and a Gambling Incident Register from 1 September 2024;
- Announcing a ban on gambling advertising on public transport and terminals people catch it;
- Investing $100 million into the Gambling Harm Minimisation Fund from the fine imposed on the Star Casino by the NSW Independent Casino Commission;
- Consulting with the community on a third-party exclusion scheme and use of mandatory facial recognition technology to support a statewide exclusion register for NSW hotels and clubs with gaming machines.
The Government has also banned political donations from clubs with electronic gaming machines, effective from 1 July 2023.
“In addition to these reforms, the Government funds the GambleAware Helpline and Gambling Help Online. Both services are available 24/7 which means anyone in NSW can access free and confidential gambling support services online, by phone or face to face,” the Government stated.
“While the former government over 12 years introduced several initiatives, the NSW Labor Government has moved quicker and has implemented more comprehensive reforms over the past two years.
“The Government notes that while many of our reforms have only been in place for under 12 months, we acknowledge and welcome that both the Department of Creative Industries, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport and Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority have accepted the recommendations made in the report.
“This is complex reform, and changing behaviour takes time.”
The Government said it is currently considering further recommendations from the Independent Panel on Gaming Reform.
Read the 51-page report here.
