{"id":777020262,"date":"2024-10-29T09:42:59","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T12:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777020262"},"modified":"2026-04-22T04:43:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T07:43:17","slug":"opposition-raises-concerns-over-progress-on-tasmania-gaming-machine-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/opposition-raises-concerns-over-progress-on-tasmania-gaming-machine-reforms","title":{"rendered":"Opposition raises concerns over progress on Tasmania gaming machine reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Members of opposition parties claim the government may weaken mandatory pre-commitment card policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- Independent member of the Legislative Council, Meg Webb<\/strong>, has raised concerns about progress on a proposal for a mandatory pre-commitment card for electronic gaming machines<\/a> in Tasmania. The comments come after it emerged that the government had commissioned a review to examine the proposed system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Webb said: “It is over a week since the existence of this secretive Deloittes Access review of the pokies mandatory pre-commitment card policy was dragged out of the Liberal government in parliament and over a week of premier Rockliff ignoring calls for its terms of reference to be made public.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The government\u2019s slippery behaviour regarding this secret report is deeply disturbing.\u00a0 It is concerning that its existence had to be dragged out of them via parliament, and it is unacceptable we have to go back to parliament to secure further basic details such as what the reviewers are actually looking at, who they are talking to and its timeframe.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally introduced to address the state\u2019s high rates of gambling-related harm, the card system would allow users to restrict losses to AU$100 per day, AU$500 per month, and AU$5,000 per year. However, recent developments have raised concerns that the policy may be altered or watered down to allegedly benefit industry players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See also: <\/strong>Australian online gambling credit card ban enters force<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the Tasmanian Greens have accused the government of backtracking on its commitment to gambling reform. Vica Bayley MP<\/strong> said: “Standing with the head of the pokies lobby, the premier told the media ‘a more measured approach’ was needed for pokies reform. Translating the politician-speak, Jeremy Rockliff is saying he is no longer going ahead with the critical measures his government had previously promised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The pokies lobbyists are winning yet again. Watering down the key pillars of the pokies pre-commitment card <\/strong>is a shameful decision that will mean more harm done to more Tasmanians. All of this simply to protect the profits of the pokies industry. This is a terrible capitulation from a premier who promised to lead a government with \u2018heart\u2019. We now see that pokies profits are more important to the Liberals than the health and wellbeing of Tasmanians.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to ABC, premier Jeremy Rockliff said on Monday (October 28): “I expect to make a decision in the not-too-distant future when it comes to all the available information in terms of cost of implementation, in terms of impact on business, particularly in regional areas, and when it comes to the increase in other technologies, such as facial recognition.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australian Greens introduce bill to ban gambling ads across all platforms<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In unrelated news, a week ago, the Australian Greens party has submitted a bill to the senate calling for\u00a0a ban on all gambling ads in the country<\/strong>. The bill\u00a0would ban gambling ads on TV, radio, print and online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a statement from the Greens, the move was prompted by \u201ccontinued delays by the government\u201d on introducing the total ban<\/a> as recommended in a report by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs led by Labor MP Peta Murphy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young<\/strong>, Greens Spokesperson for Communications, said: \u201cTime is up and the public is sick of the excuses and the delays. The Government clearly doesn\u2019t have the guts to stand up to the bookies and ban gambling ads so, today, the Greens will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cProblem gambling ruins lives and Australians lose more per capita to gambling than anywhere else in the world<\/strong>. The evidence from experts and the overwhelming majority of Australians (7\/10) is clear: gambling ads cause significant harm and they must be banned, just like tobacco ads. The Prime Minister said recently that banning gambling ads was the \u2018easy option\u2019 to reduce gambling harm. We agree and we call on Labor and Liberal to back our bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese ads are crucial to the bookies\u2019 business model as they fuel the human misery of problem gambling. People are sick of having gambling ads rammed down their throats during family time when we are watching the footy. Labor and Liberal will have to stop hedging their bets when my bill comes for a vote in the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of opposition parties claim the government may weaken mandatory pre-commitment card policies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":10787,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Tasmania's proposed mandatory pre-commitment card for electronic gaming machines faces potential weakening following a government-commissioned review, drawing criticism from opposition parties concerned about industry influence. Concurrently, the Australian Greens have introduced a federal bill to ban all gambling advertisements nationwide, citing public harm and governmental inaction. These developments signal significant regulatory uncertainty for the Australian iGaming and land-based sectors.","focusai_entities":"Meg Webb, Deloittes Access, Liberal government, Jeremy Rockliff, Tasmanian Greens, Vica Bayley MP, ABC, Australian Greens, House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs, Peta Murphy, Sarah Hanson-Young","focusai_location":"Australia, Tasmania","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (1.0), affiliate_publisher (0.9), product_ux (0.7), tech_data (0.7), marketing_crm (1.0), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.85), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact of Pre-commitment Dilution?","query":"What are the specific economic impacts on EGM GGR and regional businesses if Tasmania's mandatory pre-commitment card policy is significantly diluted?"},{"label":"Ad Ban Strategy Shift?","query":"How would a federal ban on gambling advertising reshape operator marketing spend allocation and player acquisition strategies across digital and traditional channels?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,154],"tags":[23911],"class_list":["post-777020262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legislation-news","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777020262","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=777020262"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777020262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777020278,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777020262\/revisions\/777020278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777020262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777020262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777020262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}