1,000 signatures reached
To: All Tasmanian state MPs and MLCs
Make Pokies Safer in Tasmania
Protect Tasmanians by making poker machines safer with simple changes that won’t affect jobs or recreational use, but will safeguard people’s mental health, families, homes, livelihoods and life savings:
1. Set the max bet to $1 (currently $5 maximum bet)
2. Set 6-second spin speeds (currently 3 seconds)
3. Reduce the maximum jackpot
4. Prohibit losses-disguised-as-wins (celebration of net losses) and false near-misses
5. Introduce regular machine shutdowns to provide a break in play
6. Reduce the opening hours of gaming rooms from 20hrs/day to 12hrs/day
7. Require staff to intervene when people are showing signs of a gambling problem.
Why is this important?
The Tasmanian government is legislating to change poker machine licensing and taxation - and the proposed laws aren’t looking good at all.
Unless we speak up and put pressure on the government, this will mean special low tax rules just for casinos, consolidating power and ownership of pokies into a handful of big business at the cost of local pubs, failure to add any extra protections, and no measures to get decent financial return for our state.
The Tasmanian government is throwing away the opportunity to responsibly regulate an addictive product and get the best outcomes for our community.
Here are some facts about Tasmanian pokies:
- Tasmanians lose around $500,000 every day to pokie machines
- Currently, people can lose up to $600 per hour!
- Australia has more pokie machines per capita than any other country in the world!
- Australia has extremely weak consumer protection in place for pokie machines compared to the rest of the world
- Australia has higher intensity machines, which means we have far higher losses and more pokies addiction than other countries
No other country in the world puts high-intensity poker machines outside casinos or destination gambling venues. Currently, our pokies don’t have the normal, effective, evidence-based consumer protection and harm minimisation measures that are used in other countries.
Thousands of Tasmanians are unnecessarily becoming addicted to pokies and experiencing devastating financial harm to provide the industry with super-profits.
Poker machine reform NEEDS to focus on protecting Tasmanians and making poker machines safer for people to use. Sign the petition to demand the Tasmanian government protects consumers and makes poker machines safer.