Crown to face nation’s toughest pokies pre-commitment rules

Crown patrons will be forced to pre-commit to maximum poker machine losses and will face strict time limits under a push to tackle problem gambling that is likely to upend the profitability of the casino’s 2628 gaming machines.

Ahead of a looming $8.9 billion takeover of Crown by US private equity giant Blackstone, the state government has confirmed it will impose the toughest mandatory pre-commitment laws in the nation on the casino.

The royal commission called for pre-commitment limits on the amount of money and time spent playing Crown’s 2628 poker machines.Credit: Peter Braig

The move – a key recommendation of the Finkelstein royal commission into Crown – follows concerns raised from within the Department of Justice and Community Safety that a similar 2012 scheme in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia failed to tackle problem gambling and was dumped after just two years.

A spokeswoman for the Gaming Minister Melissa Horne confirmed the government would push ahead with the stringent new rules, with legislation set to be introduced later this year.

“The royal commission recommended a mandatory pre-commitment scheme be put in place at Crown and that is exactly what we will deliver through legislation later this year,” the spokeswoman said.

She said the government was in the process of detailed analysis and consultation ahead of a second tranche of legislation to deliver Commissioner Ray Finkelstein’s remaining 24 recommendations, which include a major crackdown on problem gambling.

Commissioner Ray Finkelstein and Crown Casino Melbourne.Credit: Jason South

That followed legislation last year to implement nine of the recommendations, including installing former anti-corruption commissioner Stephen O’Bryan as a “special manager” to monitor Crown over two years ahead of a decision over whether its licence should be cancelled.

Commissioner Finkelstein was particularly critical of Crown’s approach to problem gambling, saying it was “perhaps the most damning discovery by the commission”.

“Crown Melbourne had for years held itself out as having a world’s best approach to problem gambling,” the report said. “Nothing can be further from the truth.”

Under the changes, the existing voluntary pre-commitment system, known as YourPlay, would be replaced as soon as possible with a “full, mandatory, binding, pre-commitment system for Australian residents gambling on EGMs [electronic gaming machines] at the Melbourne casino”.

That means Crown patrons would be forced to set daily, weekly or monthly time and loss limits. If the pre-set limits are reached, the player would be barred from gambling at the casino on a poker machine for 36 hours.

The new rules will also ban people from gambling on a poker machine for more than 12 hours in any 24-hour period, or for more than three hours in a single stretch.

A spokeswoman for Crown said: “Crown continues to work co-operatively and constructively with the Victorian government in relation to the findings and recommendations of the report and their response.”

Gamblers lost $462 million on Crown Melbourne’s 2628 poker machines in the 2018-19 financial year, accounting for 20 per cent of the casino’s revenue.

Victorians lost another $2.7 billion in the state’s other 26,300 machines in pubs, clubs and RSLs.

In the same year, the state government collected $1.1 billion worth of taxes from poker machines, and a further $228 million in casino taxes.

The Productivity Commission found in 2010 that problem gamblers account for around 40 cents of every dollar lost in poker machines. That suggests that effective measures to reduce gambling harm could have a meaningful impact on turnover.

The Andrews government has committed to acting on Commissioner Finkelstein’s recommendations even if Crown Melbourne changes owners, which looks likely after its parent company Crown Resorts agreed to a takeover deal this week.

That will see US private equity giant Blackstone buy Crown Resorts for $8.9 billion, but the deal still needs support from shareholders and approval from gambling regulators in Victoria, NSW and Western Australia.

Former Brumby government gaming minister Tony Robinson said the introduction of the mandatory pre-commitment rules would “recalibrate” Crown’s poker machine earnings, just as smoking bans, the removal of ATMs from venues and a reduction in maximum bets had cut profits for poker machine venues more broadly during his tenure.

“You look at what has been uncovered in the royal commission and clearly their earnings are due in part to the absence of proper, rigorous, responsible gambling supervisions,” Mr Robinson said. “Pre-commitment and mandatory breaks have to have an impact. The question for the operator ... is the scale of that impact and that is the $64,000 question.”

The idea of mandatory pre-commitment for poker machine users has been controversial in Australia for many years.

The Gillard government attempted to introduce a similar scheme following the Productivity Commission’s 2010 report, but the idea was dumped after a well-funded campaign by clubs.

Commissioner Finkelstein’s recommendation goes even further than the original Productivity Commission scheme, with default loss limits and mandated breaks in use.

At this stage, the new rules will only apply to Crown’s poker machines, despite concerns this could push problem gamblers and criminal activity away from the casino and into suburban gaming venues. Any move to expand the scheme would almost certainly encounter fierce resistance.

Ian Dunn, a former chairman of the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation, last month told The Age that imposing pre-commitment rules on Crown could push problems to other gaming venues.

But he said forcing such rules on Crown would be “unbelievably valuable” and potentially a precursor to rolling out a scheme more broadly.

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