Geelong anti-gambling harm policy approved despite mixed response

Geelong council has come up trumps passing its anti-gambling harm policy, despite two councillors objecting and others saying it’s not strong enough.

Geelong council has been split by a move to introduce a policy to reduce gambling harm, with some councillors calling it “modest” and others labelling it “too harsh”.

The council on Tuesday voted in favour of endorsing its Gambling Harm Minimisation Policy, approving a series of actions aimed at balancing punters’ right to the form of legal entertainment with the need to protect public health and wellbeing.

Cr Kylie Grzybek opposed the policy, arguing it was harsh on sporting clubs. Picture: Peter Ristevski

The endorsement of the policy came despite opposition from councillors Kylie Grzybek and Ron Nelson, who unsuccessfully voted against the move.

Cr Grzybek said there was “no denying gambling causes harm to individuals and families”, but argued the policy would unfairly hit local sporting clubs.

“This policy is making an explicit rule not to hold any council or city meetings, community events, activities, programs, social outings in venues that have gambling activities,” Cr Grzybek said.

“This is specifically going to rule out nearly every football and netball club in the GDFL, the GFL the BFL as they derive funds from gambling, and I think this policy goes way too far way too quick.”

Michael Tonks

“We haven’t taken our community groups on the journey, in my view we’ve gone straight to using the stick to force change.

“I think this policy is too harsh, too soon.”

But, Cr Sarah Mansfield said the changes brought about by the policy were “relatively modest”.

“The thrust of it is about health promotion, reducing harmful gambling through education and some encouragement,” Cr Mansfield said.

“Anecdotally we know community sport in Geelong is heavily reliant on the money derived from gambling. We know the GDFL gets a lot of funding from Buckley’s and very important support for that level of community support.

“We’ve heard from community that encouraging clubs to move away from this source of funding isn’t easy, as there aren’t ready sources of funding that will replace what they get from those sources.

“It’s important to note that this policy doesn’t compel clubs to make any changes, and I think there’s some misinformation in the community about this which is unfortunate.”

Despite the focus on reducing gambling harm, a city report accompanying the policy recognised “community benefits” of pokies machines, pointing to clubs returning $1.45m “in financial contributions focused on community” in 2019/20.

When compared with the $89.14m in player losses Geelong’s pokies venues raked in during 2019/20, the clubs’ contributions amounted to sharing 1.6 per cent of their profits.

City of Greater Geelong report recognises pokies ‘benefits’

Geelong council is ready to declare war on gambling harm, including blocking access to gambling websites and apps, and black-listing gambling venues from hosting city events, activities and even social outings.

But, a city report introducing the final version of the anti-gambling harm policy has also recognised “community benefits” flowing from the region’s record-breaking pokies losses.

Councillors will this week vote on a recommendation to endorse its Gambling Harm Minimisation Policy, expanding on a current pokies-focused policy to now include all forms of gambling.

A draft version of the policy was released for community engagement from October 2021 to January, receiving 69 submissions, of which 40 supported the policy and 24 broadly opposed it.

The final version of the policy, which aims to balance punters’ right to the form of legal entertainment with the need to protect the public’s health and wellbeing, includes moves to:

BAN gambling venues from holding city meetings, community events, activities, programs and social outings.

INSTALL internet filters to prevent access to online gambling from all city public Wi-Fi.

BAN gambling promotion and advertising from all city-owned facilities, and

ADVOCATE to the state government to review the current cap on pokies machines in the region.

SUPPORT any community or sporting organisation to divest themselves of pokies or end financial dependence on gambling sponsorship or revenue.

Despite the focus on reducing gambling harm, a city report accompanying the policy recognised “community benefits” of pokies machines, pointing to clubs returning $1.45m “in financial contributions focused on community” in 2019/20.

When compared with the $89.14m in player losses Geelong’s pokies venues raked in during 2019/20, the clubs’ contributions amounted to sharing 1.6 per cent of their profits.

The city’s claim of pokies machines’ “community benefits” comes shortly after the city reached it’s 30-year milestone of having the electronic gaming machines, tallying $2.85bn in losses in that time.

The milestone came as the Geelong residents continue to face record pokies losses, with three of the city’s six worst-ever monthly losses occurring over the past three consecutive months, tallying its worst ever quarterly losses of $33.2m – an average of $536,000 lost to pokies machines every day for three months straight.

Bethany Therapeutic and Children’s Services Manager Tracie McPherson last week warned more and more families were approaching the service for help with harm caused by problem gambling.

“At Bethany, we have been supporting the Geelong community in reducing gambling harm for the past 25 years,” Ms McPherson said.

“Currently, our services are experiencing an increase in individual, and families seeking to reduce or stop the impacts of gambling harm.”

“Last financial year, Bethany provided over 5500 hours of therapeutic and financial counselling assisting over 300 people across our community.

“The correlation between gambling and mental health, drugs, alcohol and family violence is becoming more prevalent. In Victoria around 39 per cent of people who gamble have a diagnosed mental illness.”

Originally published as Geelong anti-gambling harm policy approved despite mixed response