On Thursday, the ACT Government began a four-week ‘market sounding’ to gather information about a centralised monitoring system (CMS) to control poker machines and reduce associated gambling harms.

Shane Rattenbury, ACT Minister for Gaming, believes that a CMS “offers substantial potential to implement national-leading measures to limit gambling losses and improve self-exclusion.”

But Labor MLA Dr Marisa Paterson, former director of the Australian National University’s Centre for Gambling Research, does not think that a CMS is the answer to gambling harm; she considers it ineffective but expensive.

“I have concern about where we’re going with this, and why,” Dr Paterson said.

The CMS would connect all poker machines in the ACT to monitor and control their operation and to rollout harm reduction initiatives such as $5 bet limits, $100 credit limits, or loss limits, Mr Rattenbury said.

A universal player card (linked to all EGMs across all venues) would support a more effective self-exclusion system, Mr Rattenbury believes. Cashless gaming would be accompanied by harm reduction measures such as pre-commitment and loss limits. The CMS would monitor criminal activity such as money laundering. It would improve data collection to inform harm reduction policy; reporting and transparency of gambling losses; and regulatory efficiencies for both government and industry.

Dr Paterson, however, said there was no evidence for bet limits and load limits being effective harm minimisation measures, nor would implementing a CMS necessarily accomplish what Mr Rattenbury wants to achieve. For the last two terms, the government has been committed to reducing slot machine numbers; she fears that the CMS would reverse that policy.

“We need to be very clear of the end goal and what we want to achieve before we go significantly investing in a system that I think will entrench poker machines in our community for the next 20 years,” Dr Paterson said.

The ACT is the only jurisdiction in Australia without a CMS – reason, Mr Rattenbury and the Alliance for Gambling Reform have argued, for the ACT to catch up with the rest of the country..

“We need to get the measures in place that will allow best practice harm reduction – for example, a loss-limit scheme similar to the Tasmanian Government’s model, which prevents players losing more than set amounts,” Mr Rattenbury said.

But implementing CMS cost Tasmania $70 million, Dr Paterson said. Tasmania is a similar size to the ACT, which only has 3,700 machines – 23 times fewer than NSW, which has 86,000 pokies.

Is $70 million for 3,700 slot machines value for money? Dr Paterson thinks not.

“I see that as extortionately expensive investment in machines,” Dr Paterson said.

Instead, Dr Paterson said, the ACT must ensure that stringent harm minimisation measures – installing cashless gaming (an inquiry reports next week) and mandatory pre-commitment restrictions – are in place.

Dr Paterson questions, too, whether a CMS would, as Mr Rattenbury implied, improve self-exclusion in the ACT.

“It has nothing to do with self-exclusion,” she said. “We’ve dropped the bundle on self-exclusion over the last few years. There needs to be a huge investment in facial recognition technology in our clubs, and we definitely need to be doing self-exclusion a lot better. But unfortunately, I do not think a central monitoring system will have any impact on the self-exclusion scheme in the ACT.”

Mr Rattenbury announced two years ago that the government would introduce a CMS.

The market sounding is purely a research initiative, and will not directly lead to the procurement of a system, Mr Rattenbury said. The ACT Government has not committed to the implementation of a CMS.

“Upon receipt of the market sounding results, the ACT Government will swiftly consider the next steps to take in this area,” Mr Rattenbury.

Suppliers interested in contributing to the market sounding can register to access the relevant documents at www.tenders.act.gov.au. Participation in the process is confidential to protect both supplier and government commercial interests.