Every year, Canberrans spend $2 billion on poker machines – and an estimated 44,000 people have been harmed by gambling. But that could be less of a problem if the ACT Government’s proposed reform of poker machines goes ahead.

Shane Rattenbury, ACT Minister for Gaming, intends to introduce a centralised monitoring system to control poker machines over the next two years. It would set a $5 bet limit (“how much you can spend each time you press the button on a poker machine”) and a $100 credit limit (“how much you can put on the machine at any one time”).

The government will go to tender next year, and invite private organisations to bid to run the system in the ACT. The system will be developed and deployed in 2024.

Mr Rattenbury is in discussion with the city’s clubs, and will introduce a bill into the Legislative Assembly this year. A discussion paper is available online until June.

“We want to minimise the impact of gambling harm in the ACT, but we are also really clear that we want the clubs to remain sustainable,” Mr Rattenbury said. “The clubs are under a lot of pressure.”

At the moment, the bet limit is $10, and there is no formal credit limit in ACT legislation. Machines do, however, have a technical limit – of up to $7,500.

“The point of these reforms, of lowering both of them, is it slows the rate at which people can lose money on the poker machine,” Mr Rattenbury said. “It doesn’t stop people using the pokies, but it means they can’t gamble away at the same rate they would without these limitations being put in place.”

Reducing the bet limit to $5 would halve the amount of money someone could spend and lose in one hour of play from $12,000 to $6,000, Mr Rattenbury argues.

The new credit limit would also introduce breaks in play.

“Instead of sitting there playing the pokie for an hour and suddenly realising you’ve lost 5,000 bucks,” Mr Rattenbury said, “you have a chance to walk away from the machine, frankly reconsider your choices, run into a mate at the bar, and forget to go back to the pokie for a while.”

The ACT Government will use an IT gaming system to control the poker machines from the back end, connecting them all to a central network so they can be monitored and controlled; that would cost between $11 million and $18 million, Mr Rattenbury estimates.

The ACT is the only jurisdiction without a centralised monitoring system for poker machines.

The government ruled out physically changing the machines as too expensive; that would cost up to $73 million.

“Clearly, the price tag on [the IT system] is much lower, and we believe it has a range of superior qualities which make the software better than a hardware change path,” Mr Rattenbury said.

The gaming system would allow the government to monitor the rate of turnover, which affects how much tax clubs pay, and, from an anti-money laundering and terrorism financing point of view, gives the government better control and line of sight on the machines, he said.

Problem gamblers could also use the system to self-exclude themselves from the club, rather than the receptionist having to recognise them and bar entry.

“These additional features are not the central reform we’re after, but they become benefits that derive from having a centralised monitoring system,” Mr Rattenbury said.

The government has chosen QCOM, a system put together by the Queensland Government, rather than the X Series, an industry-derived model used in NSW.

QCOM has multiple providers, making the tender process more competitive; the system makes it easier to change the machines over; and both the betting and credit limit can be controlled (unlike the X Series), Mr Rattenbury said.

“Having a singular provider will keep the cost down; it will be a lower cost to both government and the clubs as we implement it,” he said.

Mr Rattenbury said the government wanted to work in partnership with the clubs to introduce the system, rather than by fiat.

“The government has a clear commitment to introduce bet limits and load up limits,” he said. “We want to do it in the most cost-effective way; we want to do it in the most efficient way. And we want to talk in detail about what that looks like with the industry.

“And so we are seeking to avoid the traditional barney between the government and the clubs around this, just shouting at each other from 20 paces, but to have a joint effort to implement this model over a sustained period of time.”

Mr Rattenbury hopes the system would be paid for over time through gaming machine revenue – totalling $166.9 million in 2019, the last pre-COVID year – to minimise upfront cost.

The ACT has 3,700 poker machines, and Mr Rattenbury wants to lower the number to 3,500 by the end of the term. (NSW has 89,000.)

Historically, Mr Rattenbury noted, up to 70 per cent of revenue for some clubs came from poker machines; but every year, clubs have worked to reduce their reliance on them. Some are as low as 30 per cent, while others are pokie-free.

To encourage clubs to remove poker machines, the ACT Government has introduced a diversification sustainability support fund, which helps clubs invest in other things than electronic gaming machines; an electronic gaming machine buyback scheme, where clubs can receive $15,000 for each machine, or $20,000 if they go pokie-free; and an energy efficiency upgrade fund worth $5 million.

Support for those impacted by gambling can be found through the ACT Gambling Support Service on telephone 1800 858 858 or online at gamblinghelpline.org.au.

More to come.