2016-04-28
The Greens say today’s budget papers prove the Government's voluntary pre-commitment scheme has failed to curb problem gambling.
“Losses from pokies continue to rise unabated. There has been no impact whatsoever of voluntary pre-commitment coming into effect, as predicted,” said Victorian Greens Spokesperson on Gambling, Colleen Hartland.
“Voluntary pre-commitment was designed by the government to fail from the start. Now we have proof and it’s a disgrace.
“The Andrews Government and the Napthine Government before them are all spin and absolutely no substance on dealing with problem gambling.
“With a massive budget surplus, the Andrews Government should be ashamed that it continues to pray on the most vulnerable in our community for revenue by doing nothing to curb problem gambling.
“Given pokies machines are designed by experts to highly addictive, it’s no wonder that voluntary betting limits are doing absolutely nothing.
“Only mandatory pre-commitment will ensure that people entranced by pokies machines, which are designed to be addictive, will stop when they reach their desired limit," she said.
Facts:
Voluntary Pre-commitment came into effect on electronic gaming machines on 1 December 2015.
The Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission in their ‘Counting the Cost’ report (2012) found problem gamblers make up 35% of total spending on pokies. So if voluntary pre-commitment were effective we would see a drop in tax revenue, not an increase.
Budget Paper No.5, Statement of Finances, page 165 (2015-16 budget) and page 145 (2016-17 budget), shows revenue from poker machines:
- Has increased by $13 million dollars between 2014-15 and 2015-16
- Will increase another $27 million in 2016-17
- Will increase by $112 in total over the forward estimates.
Gambling revenue remains about 9% of the total revenue in the budget (9.3% in 2015-16, and forecast to be 8.85%in 2016-17).
Casino revenue is up $30 between 2014-15 and 2015-16, and is projected to rise year on year.