The Greens New South Wales suggested that the Australian state’s clubs should be prevented from transferring licenses for poker machines to other venues and thus, large premises will no longer feature more pokies than it is necessary in suburban areas with economic problems.
The Greens NSW is New South Wales’ Greens party. At present, it has six members of local parliament, a Senator, a Mayor, and a total of 44 government councils. The party’s members are bound around principles that include involvement in environmental issues, social and economic justice, non-violence, etc.
Upper House MP John Kaye, who is member of the Greens, pointed out that poker machines licenses should be capped. He suggested that at first, clubs should be granted no more than 500 licenses each. The number, however, will be gradually reduced to 200 in the years to come.
According to Mr. Kaye, venues will be given enough time to prepare for the changes. What is more, he stated that they will probably not have any negative effect on businesses – they will only be prevented from installing more and more pokies in poorer areas of the state.
The Greens member pointed out that a restriction on poker machines that was imposed by former Premier of New South Wales Bob Carr proved to be ineffective. Furthermore, at least 47,000 residents of the state were reported to have shown symptoms of gambling addiction, due to the increased number of pokies in larger clubs.
Last year, research was carried out and the results showed that a total of 26 clubs have merged together since 2012, when new rules that forfeited poker machines licenses were introduced. Thus, machines in the wealthier parts of the state were moved to venues that were owned by the same company but were located in poorer areas.
The New South Wales Government, led by Premier Mike Baird, did not respond to upper house members’ recommendations for problem gambling inquiry before the elections took place back in 2014.
Last month, Deputy Premier Troy Grant sent a letter to those members, in which he stated that their request will be paid due attention in the months to come and a response will be announced.
In October 2014, the Baird administration signed an agreement with New South Wales clubs, under which the Government was supposed to consider a proposal for pokies licenses to be granted to other clubs. What is more, the stringent measures related to mergers were also to be reviewed and reduced, if possible.
