Tasmanians lost $18.4 million to poker machines in July, the highest monthly loss in five years.
The “shocking” figure has sparked renewed calls for the state government to revive its abandoned gambling reform promise.
Newly published Treasury data shows July’s losses were up $2.9 million on June’s $15.6 million. A total of 3,262 gaming machines operated across 92 venues.
The Greens’ Vica Bayley said the government must roll out the long-promised mandatory pre-commitment card system as a result.
“The $3 million increase in pokies losses between June and July of this year is a further indictment on the pokies industry and the inaction of government,” Bayley said.
He said poker machines cause “devastating harm”, including financial stress, domestic violence, crime and suicide.
The Liberals once pledged a “nation-leading” pre-commitment card to help gamblers set limits, but dropped the plan last year in favour of a national approach still being developed.
Government minister Madeleine Ogilvie said work was underway on new technology, including facial recognition, to guide the way forward.
“Harm minimisation measures are for problem gaming. And it’s just not clear to me whether those losses are all from people who have a problem with gaming. I think probably they’re not,” she said.
“Having said that, we all know and we all care deeply about families that are impacted by problem gaming … we want to make sure that we look after them.”
“We want to make sure that problem gaming is as well managed as we can.”
The July figure is the highest since August 2020, when losses reached $18.6 million.
