“A complete waste of time”: Anti-pokie advocates fold from gaming trial over mounting delays

The Victorian Government’s house of cards around reducing gambling harm is beginning to fall – and only a few days away from the launch of the state’s trial of carded play on poker machines. 

It began late last week, as gambling reform advocates who had proudly backed the initiative sought clarification on how the trial would work. Many of them have since retracted their support in the face of confusing messaging from the government and a lack of clarity.

According to the state government, the test of the new YourPlay technology will run from September to November across 43 venues in the Monash, Greater Dandenong and Ballarat LGAs.

🙅Support folds due to timeline concerns

Alliance for Gambling Reform (AGR) chief advocate, Tim Costello, said a number of factors influenced its decision to withdraw its support for the trial, including the government not providing a clear timeline of when the trial would be rolled out statewide, as well as loss limits – or “mandatory pre-commitment” – not being included.

“It is a complete waste of time to have a trial where the pre-commitment feature that could cap your losses is not mandatory,” he said.

AGR’s Rebecca Paterson told the Eastern Melburnian she and her colleagues were “a bit frustrated by the current pace” of the proposed reforms.

🛑 What is mandatory pre-commitment?

Mandatory pre-commitment is a process that commits gamblers to set a limit on how much they are comfortable losing in a given time period.

For example, they may set a $50 daily limit and, if they lose the money or reach the time limit, they will be locked out until the following day or week begins. 

Gamblers can only change these limits once every 24 hours.

These electronic pre-commitment systems have been shown to prevent and reduce harm from pokie use.

📆 Moving deadlines and media errors

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allen announced the trial in July. In a media release, it was touted as “a trial of mandatory account-based play” to “put the power back into the hands of patrons”.

The Eastern Melburnian understands human error caused a word to be omitted from a previous media release, with the initial release incorrectly implying the trial would include mandatory loss limits.

A State Government spokesperson told the Eastern Melburnian the trial was “an important first step” towards delivering on its proposed reforms.

However, Rebecca Paterson said despite clear timelines once being on the table, recent discussions with the State Government have made the AGR question its confidence around the reforms.

“That timeline is no longer being referenced and new timelines are being talked about or being consulted on,” she told the Eastern Melburnian.

🎤 Last-minute debates

Despite an impassioned plea from Greater Dandenong councillor Rhonda Garad, who put forward a motion for the council to withdraw their own support for the trial, the majority of councillors voted against the motion.

The Eastern Melburnian understands Monash Council staff have since written to the state government, raising their worries after learning mandatory pre-commitment would not be included in the trial.