Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Anglicare NT's David Pugh says the NT Government's gambling reforms don't go far enough in supporting those with addictions

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Anglicare NT's David Pugh says the NT Government's gambling reforms don't go far enough in supporting those with addictions · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: You may have heard yesterday the Northern Territory government has
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  Speaker 1: made a number of changes to gambling protocols which we'll
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  Speaker 1: see staff having to complete a Responsible Service of Gambling
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  Speaker 1: course every three years. So it's a free online course,
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  Speaker 1: hoping to ensure well, it does ensure that staff are
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  Speaker 1: up to date with the latest harm minimization strategies for
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  Speaker 1: problem gambling. But you know, how are we going in
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory at the moment when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: gambling and will these changes make much of a difference.
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  Speaker 1: Joining me on the line right now is Dave Pugh,
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  Speaker 1: who is indeed the general manager of Angler Care. Good
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  Speaker 1: morning to you, Dave.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning now Dave.
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  Speaker 1: You know, when you look at the Northern Territory and
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  Speaker 1: the issues that we have with gambling, how do these
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  Speaker 1: changes from yesterday go in terms of curbing some of
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  Speaker 1: those issues on that's.
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  Speaker 2: That time, that's a bit minimal. I really look Pecullar
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  Speaker 2: with a massive public health issue and we're applying such
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  Speaker 2: a small response to it. You know, fifty percent of
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  Speaker 2: all the revenue from paper machines, and paper machines are
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  Speaker 2: the most significant Gambling an addictive product is percent of
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  Speaker 2: all the revenue is harming. It's coming from people who
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  Speaker 2: are being harmed because they are technically problem gamblers. So
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  Speaker 2: when you've got such harm, it's hard to imagine that
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  Speaker 2: we can address it by putting a little bit of
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  Speaker 2: training in for a few sort of a few workers
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  Speaker 2: on the floor who don't have a lot of power.
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  Speaker 2: So you know, you to contact your care to practice
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  Speaker 2: good there's a good things in it. It doesn't apply
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  Speaker 2: managers to do training. It doesn't apply to people who
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  Speaker 2: create the systems to do the training. And look, there's
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  Speaker 2: so much I could say about how we could improve this.
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  Speaker 2: It's it's phenomenal that when people are on the roads,
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  Speaker 2: we don't expect the drivers to take full responsibility for
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  Speaker 2: their safety. We require them to their seat else and
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  Speaker 2: yet here we are in a gambling then you really
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  Speaker 2: saying basically to the individual, it's your problem. You have
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  Speaker 2: to deal with it. We won't put sequelts in place,
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  Speaker 2: We'll put some minimum things in place. You know, we
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  Speaker 2: we've got a significant problem where the biggest of this
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  Speaker 2: huge source of gambling revenue is doing harm to so many.
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  Speaker 1: People in the MT do I've talked us through, you know,
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  Speaker 1: some of the numbers when you know, when you talk
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  Speaker 1: about people who are really struggling with you know, with
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  Speaker 1: an addiction to gambling.
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  Speaker 2: Well business, Senes, I don't think have a flooded but
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  Speaker 2: resin machines are actually designed to give an addiction, to
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  Speaker 2: create an addiction. It's a bit like saying we'll provide
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  Speaker 2: heroin safely, but you've got to manage your hero and
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  Speaker 2: addiction yourself. They are addictive machines. In fact, so much
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  Speaker 2: science goes into making them keep people of playing there,
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  Speaker 2: and so we really need it. From the hard minimization perspective,
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  Speaker 2: the these machines are giving huge profits to people. They
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  Speaker 2: are They are designed to give ninety percent of the
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  Speaker 2: of the of the money put into the machine goes
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  Speaker 2: back to the player, but in a full year that's
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  Speaker 2: ten percent doesn't go back to the player. That's the
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  Speaker 2: law has to be regulated at ninety percent return to
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  Speaker 2: a player. But all the time the player thinks they're
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  Speaker 2: doing all right, they've got a few little wins, but
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  Speaker 2: in fact the machine it produces about ninety thousand year
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  Speaker 2: profit per machine to the company. So cowarding your licenses
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  Speaker 2: being sought in Alice Springs, that's threequents and dollars of
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  Speaker 2: profit that's going to go to the hotel proprietor. Now
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  Speaker 2: that's a lot of money, and it's a lot of money.
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  Speaker 3: That will mean that the proprietor and the industry are
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  Speaker 3: saying this is good, it's good, it's helping our business,
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  Speaker 3: the Bible, But in the process it's being harmed.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Dave, when you talk about, you know, the additional
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  Speaker 1: poker machines that are being proposed in Alice Springs, I
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  Speaker 1: know that the Independent Member for our lun Robin Lamley,
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  Speaker 1: has said, you know that this shouldn't be going ahead,
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  Speaker 1: but she's also calling on the Northern Territory government to
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  Speaker 1: intervene here. What do you reckon needs to happen when
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  Speaker 1: you talk about the situation in Alice, I think we.
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  Speaker 2: Need to take a good look at this as a
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  Speaker 2: as a territory. And of course we're getting significant gambling
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  Speaker 2: revenue from online gambling that happens to get a significant
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  Speaker 2: to tax reductions by being based in the MT. But
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  Speaker 2: just for the NT itself, I think we need a
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  Speaker 2: safe within a plan. We need a plan, let's call
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  Speaker 2: it a safe a gambling plan. It's okay to have
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  Speaker 2: a codd conduct for to pay to practice venues, but
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  Speaker 2: more impact the compliance for those venues. Of the seventy
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  Speaker 2: three popery venues in the Northern Turkey, only three which
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  Speaker 2: last year by licenses about are they complying with the regulations?
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  Speaker 2: So yes, we're going to have compliance. Yes we do
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  Speaker 2: need to invest in making sure they're regulated, make sure
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  Speaker 2: people are doing the right thing. But I think there's
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  Speaker 2: a bigger thing, and Robin's onto it. I think I
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  Speaker 2: think we do need as an mt A plan just
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  Speaker 2: to make gambling safer. In some jurisdictions they're saying a
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  Speaker 2: one dollar limit on a spin on a paper machine
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  Speaker 2: keeps people safer. West Australia decided the only way to
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  Speaker 2: keep people safe from popery addictions is not to happen.
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  Speaker 2: There's only one place in all of WA we can
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  Speaker 2: go to a paper machine because it's highly regulated. Now
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  Speaker 2: that means WA does other things with their money. It
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  Speaker 2: doesn't all go down the drain with them. So I
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  Speaker 2: think there's you know, I think we need to take
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  Speaker 2: a good look and look at invite chance of teachers,
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  Speaker 2: a wonderful new Attorney General to say, look, why don't
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  Speaker 2: we get a gathering of people who are committed to
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  Speaker 2: harm reduction and let's put a plane together.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I think it's it's not a bad idea and
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  Speaker 1: something that we'll certainly put to the government or ask
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  Speaker 1: them about. David, we are going to have to leave
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  Speaker 1: it there. We are press for time this morning. I
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  Speaker 1: really appreciate you having a chat with Ustadey.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you.