Calling for pokie betting pre-commitment to be implemented statewide, as new limits are introduced for Crown Melbourne
Passengers at Crown Casino Melbourne will be forced to pre-commit to losses and time spent on poker machines as part of reforms introduced following the royal commission’s damning findings.
Key points:
- The Victorian government has introduced a law requiring people to set a limit on their pokie losses at Crown Melbourne
- One advocate says the measure should apply to all state pokie venues
- Another set of actions aimed at combating money laundering
The 12 actions are the latest in 33 recommendations from the Royal Commission to Casino Operators and Licensing, which found an “alarming catalog of errors” at Victoria’s only casino.
Melbourne Casino — Victoria’s largest single-site company — has been able to maintain its license as long as it meets a number of requirements, including implementing reforms.
US company Blackstone recently completed a takeover of Crown’s $8.9 billion operations in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
Under a law introduced in Victoria today, all Australian residents in casinos must set a maximum limit on how much they are prepared to lose before they start using pokies.
“This is the first in the world in a series of reforms,” said Gambling Minister Melissa Horne.
The technology to enforce limits and track time and money spent doesn’t exist yet.
The government will give Crown until the end of 2023 to have mandatory pre-commitments, with the minister saying “it needs to be fully rolled out by the end of 2025”.
The limit will completely depend on the protector.
Call for pre-commitment to be implemented statewide
Chief Advocate at the Alliance for Gambling Reform Tim Costello welcomed the news.
“This is a truly historic day for the state government and therefore the Victorian people – winning back power over the Crown, which has completely dominated the landscape and dominated the terms of engagement,” he said..
He said he believed the pre-commitment system should apply to all pokie spots in the state.
“You can link the same system of pre-commitment to all pokies through clubs and hotels in Victoria, so it’s simple … pubs and ravenous clubs with pokies have been fighting this for over a decade,” he said.
Crown Melbourne has about 2,600 pokie machines, about 10 per cent of the 26,321 spread across the state. Government statistics show more than $1.5 billion is lost on pokies statewide each year.
Asked if the restrictions were likely to be enforced at other gaming venues, Horne said the government was focused on implementing the royal commission’s recommendations.
The minister said there were no dollar figures or models attached to mandatory pre-commitments to show how much better customers would get under that measure.
Other measures to tackle ‘money laundering activities’
Repeated violations of money laundering rules and links to organized crime were identified at the royal commission.
Under the new measures, the use of cash will be limited to $1,000 per 24 hours in a bid to crack down on money laundering.
The law would require customers to use a casino-issued card and identification to gamble or receive winnings of more than $1,000.
“Once again, this is a first for Crown Casino. And it is aimed directly at tackling money laundering activity,” Horne said.
This builds on previously introduced measures that direct Crown to only have one bank account for customers to deposit funds.
Other new rules include making Crown pay a casino setup fee, which the minister said “only makes sense that for the extra level of oversight Crown requires, they should also be able to pay for it”.
Any person or business wishing to own more than 5 percent of a casino operator or its parent company will need approval from the new state gambling watchdog.
Crown has been contacted for comment.
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