I note that Mayor Foster has raised a number of issues regarding electronic gaming machines today.
The most up-to-date, comprehensive analysis of gambling in Tasmania is the 2015 Social and Economic Impact Study.
Conducted by independent experts, Part A of the Study shows that:
• Since 2011, risky gambling rates (ie the proportion of the population that are moderate risk or problem gamblers) has not increased;
• Participation and frequency rates are down;
• Compared to the 2011 Study, problem gamblers’ and moderate risk gamblers’ percentage of total year gambling expenditure decreased;
• The amount spent on gambling has been declining since 2008-09;
• The number of gaming machines per capita in Tasmania is lower than the national average – 8.9 machines per 1000 people in Tasmania, relative to an average of 11.1 machines per 1000 people nationally, or 12.4 machines per 1000 people excluding WA which is the only jurisdiction that does not have EGMs outside casinos;
• Tasmania has the highest rate of people who don’t gamble at all; and
• The Tasmanian Problem Gambling Severity Index rates are at the lower end of other Australian states and territories.
Part A of the Study was publicly released earlier this year and is available on Treasury’s website.
Part B of the Study assesses the effectiveness of the harm minimisation framework that was developed and implemented by the Tasmanian Gaming Commission in response to the 2011 Economic and Social Impact Study.
The Government takes these issues very seriously and I will shortly be writing to Mayor Foster to make him aware of this research as well as the Government’s approach to harm minimisation.
Peter Gutwein, Treasurer
