Exclusion burden hurts pokie addicts
The Age
Monday June 15, 2009
PROBLEM gamblers hoping to ban themselves from hundreds of Victorian poker machine venues could be forced to join three exclusion programs.The lack of an exclusion program covering all poker machine venues has been described as "ludicrous" and attacked by people dealing with problem gambling.Mark Zirnsak, of the Interfaith Gambling Taskforce, said a dispute between groups representing pubs and clubs had led to the cumbersome system."It is a ludicrous situation making it harder for people to self-exclude," he said. "If clubs and hotels can't sort this situation out for themselves and get back to sharing information and streamlining it to make it easier for people to exclude themselves from venues then the minister needs to be knocking heads together and making it happen."Hotels are saying they are not going to share the information any more with clubs - so if you want to exclude yourself from pubs and clubs you are going to have to go to each body separately."New laws, which came into effect on June 1, make it compulsory for all poker machine venues to offer a self-exclusion service. But there is no obligation on pubs or clubs to exchange information on problems gamblers who have requested self-exclusion.Clubs Victoria executive director Margaret Kearney said the Hotels Association was refusing to co-operate so gamblers could self-exclude once from pubs and clubs."The AHA is being unco-operative and unhelpful," she said. "There is absolutely no reason for them not to pass this information on."Australian Hotels Association (Victoria) chief executive Brian Kearney said they supported one exclusion program for all venues."We want something that encourages people to engage in self-exclusion - we don't want any barriers in their way," he said.The Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation's Peter Cohen said: "We are working with Clubs Victoria and the AHA to ensure that a patron who excludes from one venue can exclude from as many venues as they wish."Our interest is making sure the scheme works for the patrons."A Crown Casino spokesman said it had separate legislation covering its self-exclusion program.
© 2009 The Age
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