Sky News has recently confirmed what most of us already knew: the pokie reform trial is likely to be delayed. The federal government has taken its time in outlining requirements and manufacturers do not have enough time to equip poker machines with pre-commitment technology, so Sky News reports that it is unlikely that the trial will start on time. Jeff House of Clubs ACT recently spoke out in public about the issue.
He does not believe that the trial will be able to start in time for the federal government to meet its February 2013 deadline, and has confirmed that the government is okay with this. “The government has acknowledged that if it takes longer, then so be it”, he says. Andrew Wilkie is not convinced, however.
The MP, who originally proposed the idea of mandatory pre-commitment, feels that the federal government has set up the trial so that it is destined to fail. If this is the case, the government will not be required to implement poker machine reform nationally, but Andrew Wilkie wants to ensure that this does not happen. As such, he has proposed several changes to the trial’s format.