Canberra clubs have been told to cap EFTPOS cash withdrawals at $250 after a loophole was exposed which allowed problem gamblers to withdraw unlimited amounts of cash.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
On Thursday, Greens leader Shane Rattenbury announced he would file a motion to limit cash withdrawals through EFTPOS in venues with pokies to $250 when the ACT Legislative Assembly sits next week.
But on Thursday afternoon, ClubsACT chief Gwyn Rees told Fairfax Media all members had been advised to put a limit on EFTPOS cash withdrawals.
"The clubs board met last week and has communicated to membership an enhanced approach to cash withdrawals via a $250 per transaction limit on EFTPOS," Mr Rees said.
About 40 Canberra clubs are associated with ClubsACT however several big clubs, including the Tradies, the Labor Club, the Belconnen Soccer Club and the Burns Club have recently broken away.
Fairfax Media attempted to contact the disaffiliated clubs and only the Tradies expressed in-principle support for the cap. The Burns Club applauded the intent but wanted to see more detail.
Currently cash withdrawals from club ATMs are capped at $250 but no limit applies when you get money out through EFTPOS.
The Greens' motion was inspired by the plight of problem gambler, Laurie Brown, who fed hundreds of thousands of dollars through poker machines in Canberra after exploiting the EFTPOS loophole.
"This change would reflect the original intent of the legislation, which is to minimise harm for problem gamblers by reducing access to cash," Mr Rattenbury said.
Their motion would not impact EFTPOS withdrawals in other outlets without poker machines.
However Canberra Liberals' gaming spokesman Mark Parton said it would be difficult to enforce as you could not automatically limit EFTPOS cash withdrawals without capping all EFTPOS transactions.
"I would hate to get to a situation where all EFTPOS was limited to $250 because it would mean if you were hosting a farewell lunch for a work colleague at a club and there were 12 of you there for that lunch you would have to go to the bank and get cash for that lunch. That just strikes me as being absurd," Mr Parton said.
Mr Parton said there were better ways for the government to intervene.
"If this government was serious about having or helping clubs to diversify out of gaming ...they would be relaxing lease variations for clubs and allowing them to genuinely diversify and they would be looking at land taxes for clubs, some of which have gotten out of gaming all together but are still getting smashed by this government because they're being treated like a hardcore business when they're actually managing community facilities really well," Mr Parton said.
Mr Rees said the clubs industry took its harm minimisation approach seriously and that the ACT had the lowest level of problem gambling in the country.
"If these restrictions apply to clubs then it makes no sense that they don't apply to other venues like the casino," he said.
The second part of the motion will address the lack of transparency around the application process for more poker machines, Greens politician Caroline Le Couteur said.
After Fairfax Media revealed in February the Mawson Club had applied to increase its number of gaming machines from 165 to 201, Ms Le Couteur tried to access the submissions, only to find the process prohibitive and "archaic".
The Mawson Club's bid for more machines has since been knocked back.
"This is a really weird, very poorly run system at present. You can't see the submission unless you go to the Gaming Commission's headquarters. You can't photocopy them , you can't use your phone to take a picture of them, it's archaic legislation. It's crazy," Ms Le Couteur said.
Ms Le Couteur said she wanted poker machine applications to be scrutinised as heavily as development applications.
A commonsense place to start would be for the commission to put the social impact statements and submissions on its website, she said.
"We need to do is make the public notification for pokies changes as full as it is for development applications," Ms Le Couteur said.
"We can easily do that, we know how to do that, I think we should do that. This is as important as many planning decisions."