Rachel made a contribution to the Gambling Legislation Amendment (Pre-commitment and Carded Play) Bill 2024. She spoke to the need for mandatory carded play and modifications to electronic gaming machine spin rates to minimise player loss.
Tuesday the 27th of May 2025,
Victorian Legislative Council
Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan):
I rise to speak in support of the Gambling Legislation Amendment (Pre-commitment and Carded Play) Bill 2024. This bill paves the way for the introduction of mandatory carded play and precommitment on electronic gaming machines in Victoria. This bill will also increase spin rate limits for new electronic gaming machines, slowing down the rate of play, reducing money laundering and helping to minimise player loss.
We understand that the government’s original plan was for a trial of these changes in mid-2025, an introduction of carded play on all poker machines by the end of 2025, a statewide evaluation by late 2026 and a consideration of further changes to things like non-binding precommitment limits in late 2027. The issue with this timeline is clear from the name of the bill itself: the Gambling Legislation Amendment (Pre-commitment and Carded Play) Bill 2024.
This bill has taken over six months to be debated in the Legislative Council since it was first introduced in the Assembly, and it is not as if the government lacks the numbers to pass legislation here. Maybe what they really lack is the willpower – the willpower to meaningfully crack down on addictive and harmful parts of the gambling industry, the willpower to stop propping up their budget bottom line by raking in ever-increasing revenue from pokies taxes and the willpower to say to the people and their loved ones whose lives have been profoundly affected by the harms of gambling, ‘We see you, we know we need to change and we will.’
This government has failed to meet its own timeline, and we have no idea what a new timeline even looks like. Victorians deserve to know why this government has gotten cold feet and chosen to delay this critical harm minimisation reform. Accordingly, I will be putting forward a number of questions in the committee-of-the-whole stage on this bill. One thing is for certain, these changes will be deferred until well after the next state election. By allowing this delay, this government is essentially saying that it does not care about the very real risk of a change of government throwing these changes out. We do appreciate that these are major reforms, but that is all the more reason to get them underway as soon as possible. Crown Casino has already been forced to implement carded play on its poker machines. We need to finish the important work we started here.
This bill is before us today because we know how harmful gambling can be, and we know precommitment and carded play are effective in reducing these harms. The existing voluntary scheme has been stigmatising and ineffective. If we are to make changes to address gambling harms, we need to bring everyone along on that journey. Precommitment and carded play empower people to take control of their gambling and know their limits. Norway, the first country in the world to introduce a full precommitment system, saw a great reduction in gambling harms. While this bill by no means reflects all the work still to be done in addressing the harms of gambling both in Victoria and across Australia, it is a step in the right direction.
My colleague David Ettershank and I have stood in this place many times to push for the government to reform and respond to the profound losses that gambling causes. We know that, on average, Victorians spend $1300 per capita on betting each year, making it the costliest addiction in this state. The knock-on financial impacts and emotional, psychological, relational, productivity and social costs are estimated at $7 billion. This dwarfs the forecast $1.5 billion in pokies taxes the government is set to rake in by 2028–29. There is an obvious conflict: the government claim to want to protect vulnerable Victorians, but they rely heavily on revenue generated from gambling to improve their budget bottom line. When we stood in this place almost two years ago and debated a bill to tighten some of the regulations around casinos, we stated our hope that future reforms would be more ambitious, yet here we are today.
We will support this bill, and we encourage the government to implement these reforms as soon as possible. At the very least they must be transparent about why they are allowing the community to continue to be subject to the harms of gambling by delaying these reforms.
Related:
> Gambling Legislation Amendment Bill 2023 – Rachel Payne
> Gambling Regulation Amendment Bill (2023) – second reading – Rachel Payne
> Eliminate gambling ads from sporting venues in Victoria. – Rachel Payne
> Greater accountability for greyhound lives – Rachel Payne
External:
> Gambling Legislation Amendment (Pre-commitment and Carded Play) Bill 2024 | legislation.vic.gov.au
