‘Limit pokie spending’

EVERY Australian poker machine should have mandatory limits restricting the amount punters can lose, a new national study has found.

The Australian Gambling Research Centre has called for a full “precommitment” system after one radical trial led to highrisk gamblers reducing their spending by more than half.

Centre manager Dr Anna Thomas said her study showed the most effective curbs to poker machine losses was a universal system of binding loss limits built into all poker machines across Australia.

“Full precommitment systems require gamblers to set a binding limit on the amount of money they wish to spend before a gambling session starts,” Dr Thomas said. “This can help people to manage how much money they spend and can reduce the harm for gamblers who are already chronically overspending.”

Dr Thomas said a South Australian trial of precommitment measures in 70 venues reported high-risk gamblers reduced their spending by 56 per cent. In 2015, Victoria became the first state to adopt a partial, voluntary precommitment system. Pokie players are able to choose whether to gamble with a card which has a preset limit. However, the user can keep gambling by removing the card.