ACT gaming minister Shane Rattenbury would be able to force clubs to surrender poker machines if the government cannot otherwise reduce the number of pokies in the ACT to 3,500 by 1 July 2025, a bill introduced this week proposes.

The clubs sector, however, objects to any compulsory acquisition.

The Gaming Machine (Compulsory Surrender) Amendment Bill 2024 extends the Gaming Machine Authorisation Surrender Incentive Scheme, which pays clubs $15,000 for every poker machine surrendered, or $20,00 per machine to go “pokie-free”.

Over the last decade, Mr Rattenbury said, government measures had reduced the number of machines by 1,232 (from 5,022 authorisations in 2015 to 3,790 in February).

Licensees can receive half the payment upfront and the remainder when they surrender the machine. Mr Rattenbury said this would provide clubs with the initial cash injection to support their diversification activities. Clubs with fewer than 20 poker machines would be exempt from the compulsory scheme, but could still access the voluntary scheme.

“While we welcome the announcement, it is just an extension of the existing scheme,” Craig Shannon, CEO of ClubsACT, said. “We also do have an objection to any suggestion of compulsory acquisition, and hope the target is met through voluntary surrender.”

Mr Shannon understands the ACT Government is approximately 270 licenses short of their 3,500 targets. 

“Unfortunately, the payments offered do not represent the true value of those licenses, in our opinion, and are not necessarily an attractive proposition for many clubs,” Mr Shannon said.

The ACT Government is testing the market for a ‘central monitoring system’ to control poker machines and impose bet and loss limits. Mr Rattenbury believes it will reduce harm, but Dr Marisa Paterson MLA, former director of the Australian National University’s Centre for Gambling Research, considers a CMS would be “extortionately expensive”.