Councillor Chris Harris

The Greens are appalled at the City of Sydney support for the installation of ATM machines in establishments that rely on poker machines to boost their profits.

The Planning staff of the City of Sydney prepared a submission to the Senate Inquiry into Senator Xenaphon’s Bill “ATMs and Cash Facilities in Licensed Venues Bill 2008” and the “Poker Machine Harm minimization Bill 2008” proposed by Senator Fielding. The submission was not listed for discussion at a council meeting but was circulated internally during the transition period between the new and old council following the Local Government elections. The Clover Moore party signed off on the report.

Senator Fielding’s Bill seeks to place restrictions on the amount that players can feed into a poker machine at any one time, prohibits multiple line betting, limits bets per spin, regulates the spin rate and limits associated linked jackpot arrangements. These restrictions, which constitute a harm minimization approach, will reduce the “loss rate per hour” and are broadly in line with what has been the Greens public position for many years.  Congratulations Senator Fielding.

Sen Xenaphon’s Bill, which is keenly supported by the Greens, goes further in seeking to ban ATM machines from premises that operate poker machines.  The Greens support of this approach is based on solid empirical evidence that demonstrates that problem gamblers use ATMs in licensed venues at a rate that is 12 times higher than non-gamblers and 5 times higher than “recreational gamblers. 

But with breathtaking hypocrisy, the Clover Moore Party acquiesces to the business as usual approach of the City’s planning staff and opposes the ban on ATMs in pokie venues. This is despite acknowledging that vulnerable individuals need to be prevented from developing gambling problems and that the current prevalence of problem gamblers needs to be reduced.

The City’s submission gives two reasons in opposing a ban on ATMs in licensed premises that host poker machines. These reasons are that a ban would:

1 “limit the reasonable level of enjoyment from gambling by recreational gamblers”
2 “ensure that the livelihood of those associated with the gaming industry is not unnecessarily compromised”  

A recent study in the ACT by the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission found that only 5.2% of non gamblers accessed an ATM when visiting a licensed premises compared to 60% of problem gamblers.

So essentially what this means is that ATMs in licensed premises are provided by operators to feed the compulsive behaviour of problem gamblers rather than for the convenience of a very small minority of non-gambling patrons as is often claimed in justifying the need for ATMs. This study demolishes the two reasons that the Lord Mayor’s administration advance in support of their submission.

The other interesting point is that the City of Sydney does not have the power to regulate poker machines (GAMING MACHINES ACT 2001 - SECT 209) but it does have the power to refuse permission to install ATMs in a development application. So if the Clover Moore Party implements the position outlined in its submission, it renders the City impotent in the one area where it can make a contribution to limit problem gambling

The Greens will continue to campaign to eliminate government reliance on poker machine revenue, to ban the provision of ATMs in pokie dens and will continue to seek increased support for gambling addicts with harm minimization measures.

Below are Senator Xenaphon’s speech and the City of Sydney submission

xenaphons-speech-for-atms-and-cash-facilities-in-licensed-venues-bill-2008.doc

submission-to-the-inquiry-into-the-atm.doc