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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-09-19 Daily Xml
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Matters of Interest

Club Safe

The Hon. C. BONAROS (15:23): Recently, South Australian pubs and clubs have signalled their intent to install an automated system to alert gaming staff when pokies players are at risk. This flawed system presupposes that staff at gaming venues will actually approach problem gamblers, which we know, from a decision by the Liquor and Gambling Commissioner in 2016 regarding the South Australian Jockey Club's application for a social effect certificate, they do not.

That decision revealed the inadequacy of industry self-regulation in the provision of training in harm minimisation and monitoring, specifically referring to Club Safe, a model that was found to be significantly deficient during the proceedings. Nick Xenophon, in his capacity as a senator at the time, was an objector to the application and participated in the proceedings after which the application for the certificate was refused.

Club Safe and Gaming Care are meant to provide accredited training in responsible gambling and to minimise the harm caused by problem gambling behaviour associated with gaming machines in South Australian clubs and hotels. During the hearing it was revealed that the Club Safe training manuals are prepared by former gaming managers, and not specialists in the field of harm minimisation or, indeed, even trained counsellors.

The findings in the SAJC case highlight the significant issues with the quality of the training and lack of efficacy of the Club Safe model. Former SAJC CEO Brenton Wilkinson, referring to the venue the SAJC currently operates, gave evidence that only two people per week were spoken to out of the total of 840 people who played at the venue each week. Two interactions per week was the average for the 60 clubs that Club Safe is responsible for.

Frankly, the figures are pathetic, given that a 2010 Productivity Commission report into gambling found that around 4 per cent of the adult population—this is a very conservative estimate—plays pokies at least weekly and that 15 per cent of these players are problem gamblers, with their share of total spending on poker machines estimated to be between 40 and 60 per cent. Again, I reiterate that the figures I have just quoted are very conservative figures.

Mr Wilkinson also acknowledged that once Club Safe had provided training to gaming staff there was no follow-up by Club Safe compliance and regulation officers, something which is woefully inadequate. Professor Delfabbro of the University of Adelaide gave evidence that the content of training material provided by Club Safe was fairly cursory, and the training itself would not turn a staff member into an effective venue staff member in dealing with problem gamblers. More alarmingly, Professor Delfabbro gave evidence that he had received feedback from staff in gaming venues that:

Although they had done the training, they were told not to take it too seriously, and that the venue was really more interested in profits.

This is why the industry is hellbent on preventing any meaningful changes being made to assist problem gamblers. They prioritise profit over people. The compelling evidence presented during the hearing should be of great concern to the government. It is an indication of the failure of the poker machine industry in SA to appropriately train staff in harm minimisation.

Those in the parliament who are comfortable in receiving donations from poker machine barons would do well to meet gambling addicts and their families to witness for themselves the absolute devastation these machines are capable of. The government continues to be conflicted by both receiving revenue from poker machines and regulating the machines that cause such devastation to so many South Australians. The net gambling revenue for 2016 to 2017 was $680.27 million, which delivered the government $264.87 million in taxes derived from poker machines.

Two leading experts in gambling harm, Professor Delfabbro and Dr Charles Livingstone, have now made significant and pertinent recommendations for change to credibly assist problem gamblers, including lower bet sizes, reducing the number of machines, reducing jackpots, reducing the machine-generated reinforcements for winning and having appropriately qualified trainers. It is time we started listening to the experts and not the poker machine barons.

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