news, act-politics

The Greens are pushing for maximum bets of $1 a spin in poker machines across Canberra, a move that would limit gamblers to losses of $120 an hour. The Greens are also pushing for mandatory pre-commitment - which would force gamblers to decide up front, before they start playing, how much they are willing to lose. Greens leader Shane Rattenbury said the government had been "tinkering around the edges" for too long. "For too long this problem has not been dealt with in the ACT. It's absolutely time we dealt with it ... "We haven't really bitten the bullet when it comes to addressing problem gambling in the ACT and that's what this policy is attempting to do." Mandatory pre-commitment and $1 spins were recommendations of a national Productivity Commission inquiry into gambling in 2010. At the moment poker machines in Canberra take $10 spins. Mr Rattenbury has already made his support for poker machines at the casino conditional on those two measures, but now the Greens want to extend it to the almost 5000 poker machines in Canberra's clubs. But Labor is highly unlikely to agree to Mr Rattenbury's request, given the damage it would do to clubs, including the Labor Party's own club group, and Mr Rattenbury has already declared the Greens' support for a Labor government. Asked to what extent gambling was a threshold issue for the Greens, Mr Rattenbury said the party hasn't ranked its polices, but this was "a key issue". "There's a range of ways to get an outcome and we will use all the influence we have to get these outcomes because this is really important to the community that we do this... "I'll keep fighting until I get what I want and until I get the right policy outcome." The Greens also want to take one-third of poker machines out of circulation over 10 years. Gaming spokesman Michael Mazengarb said the ACT had the highest ratio of poker machines in the country, at 16.5 machines for every 1000 adults. Last year, Labor introduced a new ratio of 15 per 1000 adults to take effect in 2018, but it has now stepped back from the move, saying it will review the new cap if it wins government. The Greens want a ratio of 10 machines for every 1000 adults, bringing the ACT into line with the national average. They also want to increase community contributions from clubs, requiring them to give 10 per cent profits to community groups instead of 8 per cent. The extra 2 per cent would go to a separate fund from which groups could apply for grants. The Greens want a ban on donations from gambling. Mr Mazengarb said the clubs industry had taken the "radical step of funding a front party to protect their gambling monopoly". He was referring to the Canberra Community Voters party set up by former clubs lobbyist Richard Farmer, which has so far declared $58,000 in funding from Clubs ACT, with more expected. He also referred to the Labor clubs making $25 million from their poker machines last year, and the Liberals channelling political donations from NSW. "It is no longer acceptable for the ACT Labor party to bankroll their campaigns with money extracted from some of our community's most vulnerable members," he said. Liberal leader Jeremy Hanson rejected the call for $1 spins and dismissed the Greens' measures as "a fantasy policy that will never come to fruition". "If the Greens were serious about pokie reform they wouldn't be promising to put hundreds of poker machines in the casino," he said. A spokesman for Chief Minister Andrew Barr said Labor was already reducing poker machine numbers.

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