National News
Government moves to bring in cashless gaming in gambling law changes
The ACT government will introduce what it describes as “the single largest package of reform in Australia” to try and reduce harm caused by poker machines.
The changes include establishing mandatory account-based cashless gaming across all venues, bans on EFTPOS and ATM withdrawals for pokies in venues, and reducing the time that gaming machines can operate across a week by 15 hours. For anyone to play the pokies in the ACT, they will need to have an account with a venue and an accompanying player account card.
As part of that required account, a player will have to set a maximum loss limit. All clubs will also be required to enforce patrons to take a 15-minute break after every hour of continuous play on a poker machine.
The ACT Minister for Gaming Reform Marisa Paterson said the changes are aimed at making long-lasting improvements. But the government will not introduce a central monitoring system (CMS) as part of the cashless gaming set-up, that would link all gaming venues across the ACT.