Gambling News by Gambling Headquarters

STEVE Bracks's keenly awaited pokies policy was effectively stillborn on the eve of its planned release earlier this year, when Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu grasped the initiative with a pledge to cut 5500 machines. It's not that Baillieu's policy was without flaws; for one thing it was uncosted. It also allowed for the removal in 2012 of idle poker machines gathering dust in the corners of gaming dens while more damaging machines remained in service. But it meant the Government had to sit on its policy in case it seemed inconsequential incomparison. Finally this week Bracks and Gaming Minister John Pandazopoulos wheeled out their policy to extend regional caps on poker machine numbers. And inconsequential it was. There were some minor new curbs on an industry that rips more than $2.5 billion from the pockets of Victorians each year. The Government got serious at last about ATMs in gambling venues, restricting them to dispensing $400 a day per person. And the maximum bet was reduced from $10 to $5. But according to former pokies addict and People Power candidate Gabi Byrne, this still allows a gambler to lose $120 a minute. The great shame about the policy is that it makes clear that while the Bracks Government has grasped the significance of problem gambling - there's a large boost for treatment services - it's not willing to take the hard decisions that will seriously reduce the effect of poker machines in the state. The much vaunted extension of the regional caps - designed to force pokies from poorer areas into wealthier ones - was underwhelming when the number of machines involved, 540, was less than one-third of that recommended by the Government's backbench committee. And the machines were being moved rather than being taken out of service. It's clear that revenue concerns were behind this decision, but the Premier and Pandazopoulos played dumb when asked about the effect of both options on the budget. They refused to say exactly what repercussions the policy would have on the $1 billion the state takes from taxes on poker machines each year, even though it's a near certainty they would have been given a detailed briefing on this.

That the central elements of both parties' policies are uncosted - although external estimates put the cost of the Liberal plan at $200million a year - doesn't augur well for sensible policy formation in the coming election. Labor has drafted its pokies policy against a backdrop of bulging government coffers. Treasurer John Brumby recently revealed the surplus to June this year was expected to be $825 million, almost double the previous estimate in May.

If the Government cannot reduce the prevalence of this pernicious form of gambling and reduce our reliance on pokies taxes in a period of economic sunshine, when will it be able to?

To describe poker machines as entertainment that adds some value to people's lives defies credibility. Even though anyone can grasp the mathematical reality that if you play pokies long enough you will lose - any wins or jackpots are simply a temporary deviation from the eventual loss - people continue to play the machines.

And too often those who play them are those who can least afford to, so they have become a form of taxation on the needy.

Sadly, it's an arrangement the Government seems perfectly comfortable maintaining. There was no talk from the Government this week of changing this situation and finding alternative and more equitable sources of revenue. There were lots of nice words in the policy documents about the dangers of problem gambling and an apparent recognition of the knock-on effects in terms of crime, welfare dependence and absenteeism, as well as the human cost of broken families, marriages and lives.