‘Embarrassing, not credible’: Why pubs and clubs won’t back gambling scheme

The powerful pubs and clubs lobby has refused to back the key recommendations in a long-awaited report into the state’s gambling system, insisting there was no credible evidence they would work.

The final report of the Independent Panel on Gambling Reform, released on Tuesday, revealed a cashless gaming trial set up by the Minns government was unable to draw robust conclusions on whether imposing spending limits on poker machine players changed their behaviour, due to the small sample size of participants.

Gaming panel chair Michael Foggo, left, with Premier Chris Minns and Gaming Minister David Harris at a press conference regarding greyhound racing last year. The trio are now linked by the inquiry into cashless gambling.Credit: AAP

Only 14 players were considered “genuine and active” users, after industry employees testing the technology were excluded from the figures, and a single player accounted for 76 per cent of the total amount spent on poker machines during sessions that started with cashless technology.

A spokesman for Gaming Minister David Harris said the government would not be rushed in working through the “significant complexities” flagged in the 530-page report.

“It is important that people have an opportunity to read the panel’s report while the government thoroughly considers it,” he said.

The trial was the fulfilment of an election commitment by the Minns government to test cashless technology before rolling it out generally as the previous government had promised to do, following a NSW Crime Commission finding that billions of dollars in dirty money was flowing through the state’s poker machines.

The Independent Panel’s three-person executive committee recommended a central database for poker machine players that would mitigate money laundering by requiring them to be identified.

It would be mandatory to hold an account, which would be set up with default time and spend limits, but the limits would be non-binding and players could elect to opt out of them, and cash would be allowable up to a certain threshold.

The committee said in its final communique the recommendations offered the government a balanced way forward that prioritised harm minimisation while also giving industry time to transition in a manner that protected its viability.

But the recommendations have been savaged by the committee’s own advisory panel comprised of industry groups, law enforcement representatives, harm minimisation advocates and academics.

The Australian Hotels Association said the research findings used to support the recommendations were “embarrassing and not credible”. The executive committee had relied on a research report by firm 3Arc that consisted of a survey of two players and an interview of one, and the two players surveyed had not even used the mandatory account-based technology recommended.

The AHA also underlined comments by Harris, who said on announcing the panel its purpose was to advise on “the technology, infrastructure, cost, impact on industry and employment”. The panel’s executive had not offered recommendations on any of these, the lobby group said.

“This was the panel’s primary purpose. Without this information, it is not possible to make an evidence-based recommendation on statewide account-based gaming – particularly as it was not trialled in any venue,” the AHA’s feedback said.

ClubsNSW, which supported fewer than half the recommendations, claimed the plan could result in tens of thousands of job losses and venue closures across the state.

“We are concerned that the executive committee’s report will give the government and other stakeholders a misleading impression that the recommendations have been informed by robust evidence and analysis,” the clubs lobby said.

While supporting most of the recommendations, harm minimisation groups were also critical of the final report for its failure to make spending and time limits mandatory.

Wesley Mission said its “firm view” was that without binding limits, an account-based digital payment system was dangerous.

“Without friction, such a system becomes a tap-and-go payment system and could fulfil predictions that people will lose far more money than intended.”

NSW Council of Social Services chief executive Cara Varian said it was not fair to label the cashless trial a failure due to low participation when nobody was required to sign up.

“Criticising the uptake of this trial is like voluntarily introducing seatbelts and then blaming their absence for the subsequent rising road death toll,” she said

Executive committee chair Michael Foggo said the road map was intended to be reviewed once the recommendations were put into practice, and could be fine-tuned.

The panel had realised early it would not be possible to measure the impact on industry unless the trial was statewide and mandatory, he said, and the industry had acknowledged that.

Shadow gaming minister Kevin Anderson said the report proved the Minns government was “dragging the chain” on gaming reform, saying despite the premier promising the trial would provide a pathway forward, the “flawed” process had simply kicked the issue down the road.

“After 20 months of rhetoric, delays, inaction, and distraction, we are now left with a lengthy report that does little more than suggest the government needs to do more work,” he said.

Greens gambling harm reduction spokesperson Cate Faehrmann said the comments by the AHA were “quite extraordinary”, saying instead of trying to work with stakeholders to reduce harm the lobby group was seeking to “discredit the report entirely”.

“The Australian Hotels Association has shown its cards by stating that it doesn’t support any changes to the Gaming Act which would see NSW adopt a public health approach to gambling,” she said.

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