Simon Lauder reported this story on Monday, December 3, 2012 08:18:00

BRENDAN TREMBATH: Victoria has banned what it calls 'dangerous' gambling technology. The State Government says poker machines with plug in headphones undermine responsible gambling.



An anti-pokies lobby group says other states should follow Victoria's example. But, as Simon Lauder reports, the industry says the state's ban is discriminatory.



(Sound of poker machines)



SIMON LAUDER: The noise of a poker machine venue is unmistakeable, but now poker machine manufacturers want gamblers to have the option of focussing their ears solely on the machine in front of them.



Victoria's Gaming Minister Michael O'Brien has announced that an interim 12 month ban on poker machine earphones has just been extended. He says it's irresponsible technology which is likely to cause more harm to people who can't control their gambling.



MICHAEL O'BRIEN: We didn't want to see those practices in Victoria and having reviewed the situation, we've issued a 10 year ban on these so-called audio isolation technology devices.



SIMON LAUDER: How widely used are they in New South Wales, to your knowledge?*



MICHAEL O'BRIEN: We understand there are about 30 I think venues that may have used them. Certainly it was being advertised and promoted into the Victorian market by the manufacturer of this technology, so we certainly saw a real risk this would cross the Murray and come down to Victoria.



And the idea of somebody walking into a gaming venue, and the sounds of silence apart from a number of people sitting at their gaming machines literally plugged into them is just something that we just find was fairly abhorrent and something that we couldn't support as being a responsible gambling practice.



SIMON LAUDER: The Chair of the Interchurch Gambling Taskforce, Dr Mark Zirnsak, says the ban is fantastic news and should be replicated Australia-wide.



MARK ZIRNSAK: It's been disappointing that the Government of New South Wales hasn't taken as much interest in protecting its people as the Victorian Government clearly has. So it's good news for Victorians that we have a government that is taking a stronger interest in protecting people from these kind of dangerous and risky technologies.*



SIMON LAUDER: The group representing the poker machine industry has labelled the ban inappropriate and discriminatory. In a submission arguing against the ban, it said there's no evidence that players would experience any harm from using earphones.



Victoria's Gaming Minister Michael O'Brien rejects that.



MICHAEL O'BRIEN: This one just doesn't pass the commonsense test. If gaming manufacturers want to promote a technology which isolates their customers, plugs them into machines, shuts them out from the outside world, and reduces their ability to control their own gambling, then to my mind, that is a very irresponsible position for the industry to take.



SIMON LAUDER: Do you think other states will follow suit and ban earphones for poker machines?



MICHAEL O'BRIEN: Well look I'm not here to lecture other states, but certainly from a Victorian point of view, it's the sort of thing which we just would not accept and I would have thought that other states would have grave concerns.



As I said if you walked into a gaming facility and you saw banks and banks of gaming machines with people plugged into them, silent except for the noise coming out of the headphones, any sort of argument that gaming is a social recreational pursuit is really undermined by the idea that people should be individually plugged into their own machine.



BRENDAN TREMBATH: Victoria's Gaming minister Michael O'Brien, speaking to Simon Lauder.



* EDITOR'S NOTE (3 December 2012): Subsequent to this story being broadcast, the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) advised that it banned the use of gaming machine headphones in NSW in November 2011.



The authority says gaming machine headphones were placed on the NSW Gaming Machine Prohibited Features Register, which details prohibited features on gaming machines for the information of gaming machine manufacturers.



The Authority says it took the view that any gaming machine in NSW that had the capability to operate with headphones must have the feature disabled as the Authority considered players to be at risk when they immerse themselves in gaming with the use of headphones.



The story transcript has been amended and noted to reflect this.