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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-10-28 Daily Xml
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PLAYER TRACKING TECHNOLOGY

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY (14:57): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Gambling a question about the trial of player tracking technology at poker machine venues.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY: I refer to a media release from the former minister for gambling, the Hon. Paul Caica, on 23 July this year, which announced that a trial was to be conducted at four venues in metropolitan Adelaide of patrons using a J-Card to track their play on poker machines and to set limits on the amount of time and money spent.

This trial was in response to an invitation from the minister's Responsible Gambling Working Party for Worldsmart Technology (which currently operates the J-Card loyalty card system) to participate in a trial of this new technology. My questions are:

1. Can the minister confirm that the trials are under way at all of these venues?

2. Have any other venues expressed interest in participating in the trial?

3. Can the minister advise me as to the monitoring system in place to provide feedback on the effectiveness of the trial?

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister for Gambling, Minister Assisting the Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:58): I thank the honourable member for his important question. Yes, I can confirm that the trial formally commenced on 15 August. For honourable members' information, the Responsible Gambling Working Party was set up by my predecessor the Hon. Paul Caica while he was minister for gambling. The role of the Responsible Gambling Working Party is to bridge the gap between industry practices and the government's policy and regulations and to help the minister to achieve practical outcomes for customers and the industry. The pre-commitment trial is one good example of the measures that assist gamblers to pre-commit how much they plan to gamble, and it is recognised as an effective way of preventing problem gambling, that is, how much they are prepared to lose.

As I have said, the trial commenced on 15 August. Worldsmart Technology is conducting the trial at its own expense as part of its existing venue card system (J-Card) in South Australia. PlaySmart is a new feature of the existing J-Card smart card technology, which has been in place since 1997. Currently, there are 250,000 J-Cards in use in Australia. I understand that PlaySmart is provided at no cost to players.

Initially, PlaySmart is being trialled in four locations, namely, Kilburn, Noarlunga Centre, Elizabeth Downs and Woodcroft, and there are plans to extend the trial to include the 60 to 70 Jackpot Club J-Card venues in our state. Obviously, staff in the four trial venues have already received training in using pre-commitment as a tool to assist gamblers to set limits, as well as how to respond to customers when any of these limits are exceeded.

My advice is that PlaySmart allows players to set and manage gambling limits by a period (daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly); by expenditure limits; by how much time (it creates reminders leading up to and on reaching the preset limits); by creating reminders to take a break in play; by setting a cooling off period before increases to expenditure limits come into effect; and by setting lockout periods—for example, recurring dates, such as pension days. For the trial, at this time the number of limits that players may set is four, and there is an option to opt out of the loyalty program.

The working party trial group has received its first periodic report on the trial. At a recent meeting, it was advised that 21 participants had joined the trial. Clearly, it is still in its infancy. All except one participant was using the reminder prompt option; a large number had also set the cooling off period after reaching their set limit; and around half were using the option to show the running balance on the machine. Further data has been requested to better determine profiles and trends. As I said, the trial is in its infancy.

I am advised that a number of J-Card regional venues are interested in participating in the trial and, of course, this will be pursued further. The trial has three phases, which I am sure my predecessor also placed on the record, and each phase will be evaluated. We are now in what is called the 'natural' phase, with an open invitation to participate through in-venue and staff promotion to players of the scheme. Next year, the trial will move to the 'accelerated' phase, with active recruitment of customers and coaching in the use of the system. The third phase will involve random recruitment of customers and establishing default limits on play.

The working party welcomes proposals by other parties for trial or precommitment and player tracking. We know that two other parties have thus far expressed interest in conducting a precommitment or tracking trial. Of course, all this is a learning process. The Ministerial Council on Gambling has established a national working party on access to cash and precommitment tools, and the results of our South Australian trial will be provided to the national working party.

We need to learn from the trial whether what we have is working, but we will not know that until it is properly evaluated. I know that there will be detractors, but I believe undertaking such a trial is indeed worth while, and I am very pleased that the working party has undertaken this important task.

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