Key section redacted from pokies report
Key sections of a report used to justify ditching plans for a mandatory card-based poker machine play system in Tasmania have been kept secret from the public.
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Key sections of a report used to justify the abandonment of plans for a mandatory card-based poker machine play system in Tasmania have been redacted from the document before being made public.
The Liberal minority government promised to release the Max Gaming and Deloitte reports in November.
A government media release said the Max Gaming report revealed a “likely significant cost increase and implementation delays and further outlined the complexity of the proposed card-based system, including the need to create a centralised banking system”.
The government released a heavily redacted version of the report late on Wednesday.
The sections which are not covered in black ink reveal a tight timeline but no issues with implementation delays or cost increases.
“The timeline considers the degree and complexity of change to the gaming landscape, to ensure a planned, predictable, and well-ordered transition to a scaled solution that operates with integrity,” the report says.
“The critical path analysis indicates the minimum build, test, and approval duration is 13 months.
“In consequence, there is no ‘contingency’ available in the project timeline, which means the approval to commence the Delivery Phase is on 1 November 2024 and any subsequent approvals throughout the project are on the critical path.
“Rollout commences in December 2025.”
The costs of the scheme are kept secret.
“The Discovery Report provided initial cost estimates of between [redacted].
“This report sets the fee at [redacted]. However, the daily fee assumes a partial capital investment of [redacted] of the upfront capital costs are contributed by the government.”
Initially pledged in 2022, the precommitment scheme pledged a nation-leading system of card-based play with default loss limits of $100 a day, $500 a month, and $5000 per year.
Tasmanians lose $500,000 a day on poker machines — a total of more than $1bn since 2018. Losses are concentrated in the state’s most disadvantaged communities.
Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff said the information available in the report did not reveal the complexity, delays and increased cost the government claimed to justify pumping the brakes on the scheme.
“There is nothing in the Max Gaming report to justify the premier reversing its commitment to the mandatory precommitment card,” she said.
“In fact, they were already to go. They just needed the minister’s approval.
“If indeed there were costs that were overwhelming, why doesn’t the government release that information?
“There’s nothing that is commercial in confidence about a massive blowout in costs that the Premier pretends existed. We don’t believe it.
“Pokie machines are predatory. They rely on people not having mandatory time limits, not having mandatory loss limits. These are the changes that the Premier could have introduced.”
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