Victoria’s slogan is "The place to be", and as proud Victorians we all like to think this is true. There is much to like about Victoria. Even though it is at the southern end of continental Australia, and therefore closer to the Antarctic, it is still pretty warm compared with much of the world. The capital, Melbourne, constantly ranks amongst the world’s most liveable cities. Our standard of living is good, our restaurants excellent and the nightlife is great. The state is compact and diverse; a great place to visit as well as to live.
Naturally, we tend to extend this thinking to all that we do. We’re a great state, so we do great things, right? Gambling is no different. We provide it really well, but we also legislate, regulate, protect and assist those affected at world’s best practice. Or so it’s said. Is this really true? A look at the consumer protection measures in place in Victoria suggests all is not so well.
There are two main models of consumer protection. Economic models talk about regulating relationships between individual consumers and businesses. These models suggest more competition means more protection: consumer choice causes poor providers to lose business. That is, provided consumers have enough information to make good choices.
Humanistic views of consumer protection argue that the relationship between consumers and a free market cannot provide protection. The product or the way it is provided is inherently harmful and potentially exploitative. Consumer protection needs to be based on known risks and consequences.
Both of these models have been argued to apply to gambling provision in Victoria.
If you look at the Victorian legislation, it makes a good start: responsible gambling is the first objective. Unfortunately, only 13 pages out of 666 talk about responsible gambling, and only for gaming and interactive gaming. No other form of gambling is covered. The bulk of the Act concerns fraud through unfair practice and criminal behaviour, reflecting gambling’s shady past and potential for corruption.
And yet, for every year since gaming was introduced until smoking bans came in, Treasury projections of gaming revenues were increasing even though the Productivity Commission estimated that 42% of gaming revenue was coming from problem gambling.
The state government has undertaken a range of responsible gambling reforms recently in recognition of the harm being experienced by the community. However, Gambler’s Help Southern is concerned that the reforms will not help the people who need it.
For example, all gaming machine winnings over $2,000 must now be paid in cheque, however this leaves a large sum paid in cash that can be put straight back into the machines, as many problem gamblers will do.
There is now a $10 maximum bet on gaming machines. At the legislated maximum spin rate, you could bet $16,822.43 per hour. If your winnings worked out to be the minimum average return allowed by law, you would lose $2,187. Given that our clients bet and lose much less than this per session yet experience substantial harm over time, this measure does not reflect what is happening in the real world.
Bank note acceptors no longer take $100 bills. But most people don’t carry them and most ATM’s don’t dispense them. Our clients don’t play this way either; they drip feed EGM’s, putting in $20 or $40 at a time. ATM’s are readily accessible in venues, and while the government set a $200 limit per withdrawal, the daily limit of $800 - $1000 remains.
Most people don’t seem to know about the new player information screens. You can also pre-commit how much you can lose through player loyalty cards, which is a great idea. However, as they are set up, you don’t have to use the cards, you can ignore the limit and keep playing, and loyalty programs are hard to find outside the Casino.
Gambler’s Help Southern is concerned that Victorian gambling legislation does not meet its first objective or adequately prevent harm. It is not alone in this. Legislation from other Australian states is also frequently out of step with actual experienced harm.
The regulations that come out of this legislation suffer similar problems, not surprisingly. For example, the $2,000 cheque rule has been interpreted to mean that instead of wins over $2,000 being paid totally by cheque, only the portion over $2,000 is. We cannot see how this advances consumer protection.
Smoking bans are another problem. You may have read in your local paper that many gaming venue smoking rooms are partially partitioned off areas with glass walls. Some are defined by a pole, row of plants or ceiling fans. The bans were instituted on health grounds, but also to reduce play or introduce breaks for problem gamblers (who often smoke) to think again. The government has been forced to admit they need to do a re-think on this one.
There are many other examples of regulatory problems, and we are pleased that the regulatory body, the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation, has invited us to meet with them to discuss regulation in Victoria.
The third major party in consumer protection is the gambling industry. Our experiences over ten years work with this industry have led us to conclude that they have acted unacceptably slowly and resisted some very necessary changes. Our staff are often in gaming venues. They regularly experience a range of problems stemming from non-compliance with various provisions or lack of effective responsible gambling policies. The industry’s self exclusion process has significant weaknesses, and despite a government report that clearly signals the need for major reform, nothing has yet happened.
Gambler’s Help Southern seriously questions whether self regulation is appropriate for this industry given the lack of progress in consumer protection.
Gambling related harm is evidence of market failure in economic terms. The economic prescription of increased competition is politically and socially unacceptable, so market failure has been addressed through legislative, regulatory and practice regimes. However, gambling related harm is not being addressed at an acceptable level.
The recent Victorian Gambling Research Panel Community Perceptions Survey indicated deep community concern about the state of gambling in Victoria, with overwhelming endorsement of lower gaming machine numbers, removal of bank note acceptors from machines, a $200 limit on gaming venue ATM’s and the availability of in venue assistance for problem gamblers.
In response the community sector, including services such as Gambler’s Help Southern, is accepting the need to undertake long term planning and collaborative efforts to address these issues. We can no longer afford to act on our own, hoping that the other parties will listen to our concerns and act on them.
Necessary reforms in Victoria include:
• Meaningful legislation that does not create false impressions that gambling participation has been made safer
• Uniform consumer protection legislation across gambling types that reflects available at risk and problem gambling data
• Commission community sanctioned initiatives outlined above
• Reducing the limit before cheque pays become compulsory
• Reduced maximum hourly loss rates
• Ensuring smoking areas are fully self contained and visually removed from gaming areas
• Regulation that targets clarity and expanded responsible gambling definitions
• Abandoning reliance on voluntary Codes of Practice, self regulation and industry managed complaints processes
• Replacing self exclusion with an effective universal system, ideally tied to pre-commitment
• Requiring more relevant, comprehensive training as a condition of employee licensing, and also as ongoing in-service employee training
• Consultation mechanisms with a broad range of community stakeholders, around technical standards, responsible gambling and consumer protection
• Ensuring the community is educated to informed consent standard
• Funding better prevention, early intervention and self help strategies
We believe Victoria is still a long way off this standard, however there are signs of progress in a few of these areas. We will be working hard with other community representatives to improve the situation for gambling consumers in this state. We will keep you posted on progress.
