47 Tasmanian election candidates have committed to supporting a mandatory cashless card system for poker machines, but none are from the two major parties.
A survey by the Alliance for Gambling Reform found widespread support for the pre-commitment technology among Greens and independent candidates, but not from the Liberals or Labor.
Alliance chief advocate Tim Costello called the major parties’ stance “alarming”, given they had previously supported cashless card technology.
“This election is a critical opportunity for Tasmania to finally tackle the horrendous damage that gambling is wreaking on this state,” he said.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff said his Liberal government was focused on a national approach to gambling reform.
“We’re about harm minimisation and freedom of choice and we said we would embark on a national approach,” Rockliff said. “I’ve written to all premiers seeking that national approach.”
Labor leader Dean Winter said his party instead facial recognition technology to tackle problem gambling.
“We’ve been clear on our position for a long time now. We don’t support the mandatory card-based play,” Winter said.
“Facial recognition has been working really well in South Australia … they’ve been able to make sure that people who’ve got problems with gambling cannot go back into the locations that have gaming machines.”
Tasmanian-based advocate for the Alliance Mark Kempster lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to gambling.
He believes alternative solutions to a pre-commitment card won’t cut it.
“Facial recognition will not have any meaningful impact on the cancer that are poker machines and will not do anything to prevent gambling harm and addiction from occurring,” he said.
“It’s time our governments and major parties listened to people like me who have lived through the damage gambling addiction does, not the pokies barons in this state who only care about their bottom line.”
The New South Wales government is currently considering a third-party exclusion scheme and mandatory facial recognition technology to strengthen its exclusion register.
