Across Australia, many cities are exploring their legislative options to reduce gambling harm. Moonee Valley is the latest city council to proposed new laws to limit where poker machines can be located in hopes that stricter regulations will help problem gamblers and at-risk players gamble more responsibly.
The new legislation will limit where pokies can be built in the city. Under the proposed legislation, pokies cannot be located near shopping areas, community centres, residential areas and transportation hubs. The will also be banned from being located within 400m of any public housing facilities. The idea behind restricting pokies from these locations is that it ensures that players have to go out of their way to gamble.
They cannot make the impulse decision to wager on pokies when they are out shopping or just having got off the bus. It is also important to ban them from residential areas, ensuring that players cannot simply walk to a gambling venue from their home. Banning pokies from within 400m of public housing is also a crucial provision. Studies have shown that problem gambling rates are highest among low-income individuals.
By removing pokies from these areas, the city council hopes to reduce problem gambling among disadvantaged communities. The proposal has been backed by responsible gambling campaigner Tim Costello of the Australian Churches Responsible Gambling Taskforce. He believes that the bill will help to reduce problem gambling rates significantly in Moonee Valley.
“State treasury reaps $1.2 billion [from the gaming industry], but the damage is picked up by local government, which has to provide services for the gambling addicts and their familie,” he says. “Even when there is overwhelming opposition to pokies … the [state] planning laws are rigged against limiting the number of machines, and the venues win at VCAT [Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal]”.
Submissions can be made until June 6. For more information, visit: http://mvcc.vic.gov.au/gamingpolicy.
About the Author
