Whichever way the electoral dice rolls on September 7, it is unlikely that Australian gambling will see the federal reforms necessary to tackle problem gambling, writes Charles Livingstone.
The gambling policies of the ALP, LNP and Greens are probably unlikely to sway the ballots of many voters on September 7. Yet they reveal something of the way politics works with Australian gambling in 2013, and the way the parties imagine Australia.
The LNP policy is very industry friendly, and focused on individual responsibility. At its core is a commitment to establish an Industry Advisory Council, to be composed of representatives of the gambling industry – clubs and other gambling venues. It will advise on how to implement better counseling, support and self-exclusion programs for problem gamblers.
These are useful for some people with gambling problems. However, they don’t prevent people from developing a problem in the first place. It’s exactly like locating an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff rather than building a fence at the top.
The biggest criticism to make of the LNP policy is that is will do nothing to stop people getting into trouble. Given that poker machines are, effectively, an addictive product (as Natasha Schüll of MIT recently documented in her book Addiction by Design), this is well short of an effective policy to reduce gambling-related harm.
The Coalition also wants to ban any liberalization of any further online gambling initiatives (something the clubs also want to ban, unless they actually control it).
The ALP Government’s approach to online gambling, meanwhile, proposes a staged introduction of online poker (a comparatively low impact form of gambling) accompanied by introduction of harm-minimization measures such as pre-commitment (easy to implement in an online environment).
A further key LNP policy is to introduce a system of venue-based, voluntary pre-commitment. This proposal differs markedly from that adopted by the Gillard-Wilkie agreement of 2010, under which Mr Wilkie agreed to support the government in return for, amongst other things, the introduction of a mandatory, jurisdiction-wide pre-commitment system.
This would have involved every machine in each jurisdiction being connected to a system capable of recognizing user accounts (whether card-based or otherwise), and implementing spending limits previously set by gamblers. For more on Australian gambling visit ABC News.
