{"id":25822,"date":"2021-12-22T08:24:08","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T11:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=25822"},"modified":"2026-04-23T12:43:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:43:05","slug":"critics-attack-tab-betting-shop-egm-proposal-in-western-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/critics-attack-tab-betting-shop-egm-proposal-in-western-australia","title":{"rendered":"Critics attack TAB betting shop EGM proposal in Western Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Critics have slammed the proposal to make Electronic Gaming Machines available in TAB betting shops in Western Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.-\u00a0EGMs have been banned in Western Australia<\/strong> since 1985\u00a0and are only allowed at Crown Perth, which has 2,500 of them. However, this could change in the medium term following the sale of WA TAB. A proposal has been made to allow TABs to offer electronic gaming machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019,\u00a0Premier Mark McGowan proposed to allow the prospective bidder for WA TAB to offer EGMs in TAB outlets. The sale was put on hold when the Covid-19 pandemic started has resurfaced. One of the possible buyers is\u00a0Tabcorp<\/a>, which runs the betting agencies in every other state.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Matthew Rockloff<\/strong>, a lead researcher of CQUniversity, has criticised the proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He told ABC that EGMs are “the most dangerous form of gambling that we know of.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added: “Let’s not kid ourselves, that’s what it’s all about: making that (TAB) sale come off with a better payoff. But the downside to that, of course, is\u00a0expanding gambling opportunities<\/strong>\u00a0right at a time when we’ve just shown that gambling problems are a lot lower in Western Australia.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alan Gray, a financial counsellor who helps Aboriginal people in financial crisis\u00a0due to gambling-related harm also said the proposal could increase rates of problem gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September,\u00a0the Western Australian Royal Commission<\/a>\u00a0into Crown Resorts questioned whether there is any difference between pokies and electronic gaming machines (EGMs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to financial reports,\u00a0WA gamblers have spent AU$306m on EGMs this year<\/strong>, up 50 per cent when compared to the previous year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Critics have slammed the proposal to make Electronic Gaming Machines available in TAB betting shops in Western Australia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":25855,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"A proposal to introduce Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs) into TAB betting shops in Western Australia, where they are currently largely restricted to Crown Perth, has resurfaced, linked to the potential sale of WA TAB. Critics argue this expansion would exacerbate problem gambling, despite the move potentially increasing the sale's payoff. The debate highlights significant regulatory compliance and social impact concerns within the Australian iGaming sector.","focusai_entities":"WA TAB, Crown Perth, Mark McGowan, Tabcorp, Matthew Rockloff, CQUniversity, Alan Gray, Western Australian Royal Commission into Crown Resorts","focusai_location":"Western Australia, Australia","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"EGM Expansion Impact?","query":"What specific regulatory and social governance frameworks would need to be established or amended to mitigate the identified risks of problem gambling if EGMs are expanded beyond Crown Perth in Western Australia?"},{"label":"WA TAB Valuation?","query":"How would the potential inclusion of EGM licensing rights in TAB outlets materially impact the enterprise valuation of WA TAB for prospective bidders like Tabcorp, considering both revenue uplift and increased regulatory scrutiny?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156,158],"tags":[229,23911],"class_list":["post-25822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","category-slider-home","tag-gambling","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25822"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25836,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25822\/revisions\/25836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}