Poker Machine Closures Delayed as ACT Trading Scheme Turned Out

Shane Rattenbury, pioneer of the Australian Greens party, has confessed that the poker system trading scheme which was introduced from the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has not worked as originally planned.

The Greens and the Labor Party have combined forces to extend the deadline for local community clubs to close some of their poker machines by another year.

The piece of legislation that would make an expansion to the trading system scheme needed to be brought to a conclusion in August.

But, Gordon Ramsay, the Gambling Minister of the ACT, intends to present a new bit of legislation in order to make sure that every 1,000 inhabitants of Canberra have only 15 pokies at their disposal.

Since the beginning of the strategy back in 2015, local clubs and gaming operators have surrendered only 38 poker machines. In comparison, the initial goal set was to decrease the amount of pokies from 1,000 by 2020. Clubs would have been required to begin surrendering some of their poker machines from August, in order for the cap of 4,000 to be attained .

Ever since then, a consent to operate a total of 200 pokies and 60 fully-automated table games has been given to Aquis. The operator, however, has been given an undefined extension for the proposal to be sent, which essentially suggests that clubs offering poker machines would have been the principal ones to feel the unwanted consequences of the compulsory acquisition.

No Harm on Community Clubs Intended

As The Canberra Times reported, the Greens’ chief Mr. Rattenbury explained that his party only intended to decrease the amount of poker machines, rather than to inflict any harm on neighborhood clubs. This was the reason he shared that the introduced trading strategy has proven less effective since it was supposed to be. He explained that the set of tools for management, checks, and balance that’s featured with the piece of legislation would really come at the cost of the clubs, which isn’t what was intended to be accomplished.

He further shared that the situation needed to be taken into account, in order for the Government to make sure that local community clubs wouldn’t suffer enormous negative consequences if the Government only decides to close the residual 900 poker machines in order to decrease pokies’ total number to the desirable 4,000 machines before the deadline.

Mr. Rattenbury further explained that some neighborhood clubs also agreed that there were too many pokies on the territory of Canberra, and demonstrated their willingness to become part of this solution.

The Canberra Liberal Party didn’t back the legislation to extend the afore-mentioned deadline for local clubs, saying that such a delay would come as another obstacle to the casino redevelopment.