After reneging on her plans to implement Andrew Wilkie’s plans for poker machine reform, Julia Gillard will be drafting her own laws for pokies in the coming weeks. Rather than rolling out an industry-wide gambling reform, she has decided that a trial of precommitment technology would be more appropriate.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Gillard will outline exactly what will be required of poker machine club operators who take part in the trial. The plan will include details about compensation and software, two of the biggest issues that operators have been asking about for the past month. While Gillard is confident with her plan, other politicians are not so sure about it.

The Greens have claimed that supporting Gillard’s trial may delay any efforts for actual reform. A trial may be what the clubs want, but it is not actually doing anything about the growing rates of gambling addiction across the country. “My concern is that because the bill is so weak, and so timid, that in fact what it does is it stops anything happening for the following years because we have a trial under way," says Greens Senator Di Natale.

About the Author

George Anderson
Author George, has over 25+ years’ experience in the Pokies and Casinos industry throughout Australia and New Zealand. Loves to research new Pokies games on the block and follows announcements from top industry providers about their upcoming releases. As soon as a new interesting pokie game appears on his radar, George is there to check it out and give you the scoop before anyone else and tell you about all casino sites where can play the latest game. Before this gig, George worked as Pokie game tester, making him an ideal candidate for this genre of work. He is also an animal lover and a proud owner of three dogs.