Canberra community clubs that surrender poker machines will be offered a $15,000 incentive per gaming machine authorisation, or licence, under a new ACT Government initiative.
The ACT Government will invest $1.74 million into the new surrender incentive, which is designed to cut the number of gaming machine authorisations by up to 116.
Where all the authorisation certificates for a venue are surrendered in one fell swoop and the venue becomes ‘pokie-free’, the incentive payment is increased to $20,000 per authorisation.
These incentive payments will be available through to 31 December 2022 unless the fund is exhausted earlier.
Minister for Gaming, Shane Rattenbury, said the poker machine surrender incentive is an integral component of the ACT Government’s commitment to reduce the number of poker machines in the Territory while supporting the sustainability of clubs.
“Community clubs should be a safe place for families and vulnerable people to meet and connect, but the exposure and access to electronic gaming machines can cause harm in our community,” Mr Rattenbury said.
According to the gaming minister, more than 15,000 Canberrans have experienced harm from their own gambling, and 43,000 Canberrans have had a family member with gambling issues.
“Our community clubs play an important role in the social life of many Canberrans, so we want to continue supporting our clubs while reducing the harm from pokies, and I believe these surrender incentive payments can assist to achieve that,” he said.
ACTCOSS CEO, Dr Emma Campbell, welcomed the initiative as part of the ACT’s Government commitment to reducing gambling harm and protecting vulnerable consumers, but called for more action.
“It is promising to see the ACT Government acting on its commitment to reduce the number of poker machines. However, with an estimated 10.8 poker machines for every 1,000 adults in the ACT, more needs to be done to reduce the number of gaming machines in operation,” she said.
Dr Campbell said poker machine usage rates is the most effective predictor of problem gambling.
“The ACT and the risk of gambling harm increases the more time someone spends on pokies,” she said. “The social and financial costs of gambling are huge to individuals as well as the ACT community.”
The ACT Government will work with the Community Clubs Ministerial Advisory Council as well as individual licensed premises to review the effectiveness of the incentive payments.
The 10th Parliamentary and Governing Agreement between ACT Labor and Greens committed to reducing the number of gaming machine authorisations in the ACT down to 3,500 by 1 July 2025.
This follows from the 9th Parliamentary Agreement, which reduced the number from more than 5,000 down to just under 4,000.
Since the ACT Government launched their gaming machine trading scheme in August 2015, some 1,159 machines have been surrendered, seeing the total across the ACT drop from 5,022 to 3,863, and the number of licensees drop from 39 to 31.
The poker machine surrender incentive payments build on the financial support which the ACT Government provided under the COVID-19 Surrender Incentive which was in place from April 2020 to June 2021.
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