The first compulsory surrender of gaming machine authorisations is scheduled for 2029 under the proposed reduction programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Australia.- The Australian Capital Territory (ACT)<\/strong> government has proposed a four-year reduction schedule for poker machine numbers, alongside mandatory player accounts, loss limits and restrictions on access to cash at gaming venues. Introduced on October 20 by gaming reform minister Marisa Paterson<\/strong>, the Gaming Machine (Harm Prevention and Reduction)<\/strong> Amendment Bill 2026 proposes changes to the Gaming Machine Act 2004<\/strong>, which governs gaming machine operations in the territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under the proposed schedule, the number of authorised gaming machines across the territory would fall to no more than 1,000 by 2045, through the surrender of at least 500 authorisations every four years. The first compulsory surrender round is scheduled for 2029. The bill would also require players to register for an account and verify their identity before receiving a linked player card. They would have to set a maximum loss limit, which could be lowered at any time but increased only after a 48-hour waiting period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gaming premises that issue player cards to children or allow them to use the system would face penalties. Players would also have to take a 15-minute break after every hour of continuous play. The account-based gaming requirements would take effect 12 months after the legislation is notified on the ACT Legislation Register<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The proposed legislation would ban ATMs at premises operating poker machines, as well as at related premises where an ATM is located within 500 metres of a gaming venue. Clubs would have 12 months after notification of the legislation to remove ATMs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, the Gaming Machine Amendment Regulation 2026 (No 1)<\/strong> was notified on October 21 and is scheduled to take effect on December 2, 2026. It will prohibit cash withdrawals through EFTPOS terminals at premises operating electronic gaming machines. The government also plans to extend daily shutdown periods for poker machines from July 1, 2027. Under the revised schedule, machines would be unavailable from 2am to 10am Monday to Thursday, 2am to 9am on Friday, 4am to 9am on Saturday and 4am to 10am on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ACT government says the reforms respond to findings from its 2024 Gambling Survey<\/strong>, which attributed one-third of the territory\u2019s total gambling-related harm burden to electronic gaming machines. The proposed changes would introduce additional controls on gaming machine access, spending and availability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The first compulsory surrender of gaming machine authorisations is scheduled for 2029 under the proposed reduction programme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2395,"featured_media":777033194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government has proposed comprehensive reforms to its gaming machine sector, including a phased reduction of poker machine authorisations to 1,000 by 2045, mandatory player accounts with loss limits, and restrictions on cash access. These measures, outlined in the Gaming Machine (Harm Prevention and Reduction) Amendment Bill 2026, aim to mitigate gambling-related harm. Key changes also include extended machine shutdown periods and a ban on ATMs and EFTPOS cash withdrawals at gaming venues.","focusai_entities":"Marisa Paterson, ACT government","focusai_location":"Australia, Australian Capital Territory","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (1.0), product_ux (0.85), tech_data (0.9), marketing_crm (0.75), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.85)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"ACT Regulatory Impact","query":"What is the projected GGR and NGR impact for ACT gaming operators following the phased reduction of gaming machine authorisations and the implementation of mandatory account-based play?"},{"label":"Compliance Implementation Challenges","query":"What are the primary technical and operational challenges for operators in implementing the mandatory player account system, including identity verification, real-time loss limit enforcement, and continuous play breaks, within the stipulated 12-month timeframe?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-777049013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777049013","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\/2395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777049013"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777049013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777049043,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777049013\/revisions\/777049043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777033194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777049013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777049013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777049013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}