Official directive tells National Gambling Regulator to prioritise exemption applications by pubs and clubs

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Social services minister Kevin Andrews has ordered the gambling regulator to take a hands-off approach to policing withdrawal limits on ATM machines in gambling venues.

In a ministerial directive issued on January 29 this year, just days before the new enforcement of ATM limits came into effect, Andrews instructed the National Gambling Regulator “to take an educative approach to the administration of the ATM measure, rather than engaging in active monitoring of compliance”.

The regulator was also instructed to prioritise applications by pubs and clubs to be exempted from the law. More than 3,200 applications for exemption, on grounds that the law causes “unreasonable inconvenience to the community”, have already been received.

Limits on withdrawing more than $250 per day from ATMs in gambling venues, other than casinos, were part of a package of poker-machine reforms passed by Labor in a bid to tackle problem gambling.

A bill repealing these reforms, including the ATM limits, passed the lower house in December last year but could not be passed in the Senate before the ATM limits came into effect on February 1.

Scott Smith, the director of ATM operator Cashpoint, confirmed that the withdrawal limits for his company’s line of ATMs were “ready to go” in the lead-up to February 1. He said the company had invested up to $100,000 updating software and preparing for the transition.

Then he received the minister’s directive, which he interpreted to mean that “everybody had got an exemption”, he said.

“The directive from the minister was to ignore [the ATM withdrawal limit].”

Cashpoint machines have not been updated with the new limit, outside of South Australia, where a state government $250 withdrawal limit was also imposed on February 1.

Smith described the government’s management of the issue as “woeful”, saying it had added to uncertainty around the new regulations.

A spokeswoman for Andrews’ office said the withdrawal limit imposed “excessive compliance costs on the ATM industry”. The minister’s order “provides certainty to industry on how the ATM measure will be administered”.

“It makes it clear that the regulator must ensure compliance by providing information and advice to regulated entities to educate them about the operation of the Act,” she said.

“The Coalition remains committed to removing this unnecessary and costly red-tape burden on the ATM industry as soon as possible.”

Independent senator Nick Xenophon, a vocal poker-machine critic, said the directive not to engage in active compliance of the law “shows brazen contempt for the parliamentary process”.

He flagged “a potential legal challenge” to have the ATM withdrawal limits enforced.

The government is expected to put the poker-machine reform repeal bill to a vote in the Senate after it resumes on March 3.