Mixed reactions to gambling reforms
Gripped by his pokies addiction Morgan Barrett gambled away almost $500,000. It was his settlement from losing his home in the Christchurch earthquakes.
In one pub, he spent $75,000 in a 299-day period, including 17 eftpos withdrawals on a single visit. He died shortly after emptying his bank account.
But last year, a prosecution of the publican who failed to halt Barrett’s problem gambling was botched, and no punitive action ever taken over the failures to halt his gambling.
Government problem gambling reforms announced in the wake of the Barrett case were unveiled yesterday – but Barrett’s son, Paul, dismissed the changes as ‘‘pretty pathetic’’.
The reforms are watered down from the initial proposals: suggestions to cut pokie jackpots and stakes, remove free rolls and levy penalties of up to $5000 on wayward publicans have all been shelved.
Instead, Internal Affairs Minister Jan Tinetti announced pubs will now have to record twice-hourly ‘‘sweeps’’ of their gaming rooms to check for problem gamblers, make sure gaming machines aren’t visible from the outside of a pub, move their ATMs so they are in the line of sight of the main bar and hold mandatory training for all staff on dealing with problem gambling.
Department of Internal Affairs inspectors will be able to issue onthe-spot $1000 fines for breaches. Tinetti said she expected the changes to be in force by May.
But Tinetti said she had also asked officials to ‘‘scope’’ a complete rewrite of the 2004 Gambling Act.
‘‘Cherrypicking bits and pieces won’t stop overall harm, which is why it became really clear to me that we have to have an overall look at the Gambling Act,’’ she said.
But the initial changes were underwhelming for Paul Barrett. ‘‘It’s another door shut,’’ he said.
‘‘They’re not really serious about doing anything.’’
Surprisingly, Peter DengateThrush, chair of the Gaming Machine Association, the pokie industry body, also said the reforms fell far too short. ‘‘We are disappointed that it doesn’t go far enough,’’ he said. ‘‘We think it misses the mark. We think the minister had the opportunity to improve things for problem gamblers and hasn’t taken it, but it is good to see some progress.’’
Dengate-Thrush said they supported the new penalties on publicans, but the training requirements were ‘‘a half-pie step’’, and instead there should be an NZQA-standard entry level requirement for bar staff, similar to their responsibilities around serving alcohol.
He said the minister ought to have rolled out facial recognition software which allowed problem gamblers to self-exclude themselves from machines, and that it was wrong to hide machines ‘‘in a dark, dingy corner’’ as it ran counter to Ministry of Health advice to destigmatise gambling. He said reform of the Gaming Act was ‘‘well overdue’’ and would be supported by the sector.
The reforms were launched at the Problem Gambling Foun
dation’s headquarters in central Auckland, and the PGF was cautiously optimistic.
Director Andree Froude said: ‘‘We always knew it would never be a silver bullet: until the Gambling Act is changed – which is no longer fit for purpose – that’s not going to happen.
‘‘But at least this is a step in the right direction, and the minister has signalled further strong change, which is a good thing.’’
Froude said PGF still wanted changes made to the machines themselves to reduce their ‘‘highly addictive’’ nature and also wanted changes to the community funding model, in which 42% of the proceeds are returned as charitable grants.
‘‘While we have this unhealthy reliance on funding our communities and sports groups from the proceeds of pokies when the money is coming out of some of the poorest communities in our country, it is not really going to reduce harm.’’
Froude said PGF was happy to have an Internal Affairs Minister who was passionate about reducing harm.
The Māori health agency Hāpai Te Hauora’s chief executive, Selah Hart, said they were optimistic the review would force pokie venues ‘‘to take responsibility for their role in preventing gambling harm’’.