Queensland politicians aim to benefit local business owners by removing red tape surrounding a number of business practices. Of 500 reforms, many concern poker machines and gaming club venues. One of the recent poker machine law reforms will scrap a restriction on the number of games in Southeast Queensland. Introduced in 2009, the quota system prevented ‘clustering’ of poker machines in this area.

Since the number of pokies per capita was already quite high, local politicians did not want the number to grow any higher. The system was successful at first, but now Queensland state politicians want to remove this red tape to give business owners more freedom. In this particular area, there are 27 000 pokies. Since it is highly-populated area, it is natural that there would be more poker machines in Southeast Queensland.

On the coast, there are 13 000 games and the Western part of the state has just 3500. Currently, these regions are not allowed to trade games across borders, and a new reform will change this. “Removing this geographical restriction will allow clubs to trade their entitlements with any licensed club within Queensland according to supply and demand,” says Jarryd Bleijie, attorney general of Queensland.

These reforms follow last year’s decision by the Newman government to increase poker machine bet limits. Initially, pokie players were only permitted to insert $20 bills into the gaming machines. Now, they can wager $50 and $100 bills on pokies. The plans for red tape reduction will span a wide range of industries across Queensland.

Construction, farming, ecotourism and transportation are just a few of the markets that will benefit from reduced red tape. By 2018, the Queensland government hopes to reduce red tape by 80%. For more information on the red tape removal initiatives, visit: http://www.treasury.qld.gov.au/office/services/regulatory-reform/reducing-the-regulatory-burden.shtml.

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.