Department helps reduce gambling sector operating costs

15/03/2004
The Department of Internal Affairs is committed to working closely with the gambling sector and the community, to help the sector reduce its high operating costs for gaming machines, low compliance with audits and to support community access to funding.

The Acting Director of the Department of Internal Affairs Gaming and Censorship Regulation Group, Keith Manch, said that in the last financial year gaming machine societies spent more than $315 million on administration costs and to operate 25,000 gaming machines.

In the seven months to the end of February, 45% of the 209 societies audited were fully compliant with licence conditions under the Gaming and Lotteries Act.

These topics are discussed in the March issue of the Department’s newsletter, Gambits. Some of the other articles include those about:

• How gaming machine societies can help community groups apply for grants
• a second Court of Appeal decision allowing casinos to exclude problem gamblers
• new work processes to remove licensing delays
• the tendering process for the Electronic Monitoring system for gaming machines
• development of Minimum Operating Standards for casinos
• more on-line services to speed up licensing
• compliance actions – incorrect banking is problem that cannot be tolerated
• gambling statistics – fewer licences issued
• a Japanese delegation looking at casino regulation
• new appointments.

Gaming machine societies
The Gambling Act will bring major changes when it is fully implemented on July 1. Information in Gambits will be added to next week when the Department issues discussion documents about the key issues of how societies pay pubs to host machines and rules for operating gaming machines.

“In the past the sector has argued that calculating the actual, reasonable and necessary expenses that pubs are entitled to is very complicated, this has been the subject of court actions under the current Gaming and Lotteries Act, and the sector has often asked for guidance,” Mr Manch said.

“Low compliance with audits highlights that many societies are struggling with the rules for operating their machines.

“The discussion papers will be one of the opportunities for the Department to work with societies to help them reduce costs and increase compliance.

“It will also be an important time for community groups who receive funding from gaming machine societies, those who work with problem gamblers or who have gaming machine venues in their area to be involved.

“Last year gamblers lost $941 million on gaming machines in pubs and clubs. Of that, more than $300 million was given as grants to community organisations. This is very much a community-wide issue.

“Our objective is to maximise returns to the community and minimise the harm caused by gambling.”

Casinos

One of the Department’s new roles under the Gambling Act is to, from July 1, take on many of the functions currently carried out by the Casino Control Authority (CCA).

This includes developing Minimum Operating Standards (MOS) for the day-to-day operations of casinos. There is information in Gambits and more will be in consultation documents next week.

Under the current Casino Control Act, casinos have the power to exclude problem gamblers. This has now been confirmed by a second Court of Appeal decision.

Under the Gambling Act casinos will have similar powers and, in addition, wider responsibilities relating to harm prevention and minimisation. One of the Department’s roles will be to ensure that casinos comply with these provisions of the new law.

More information

The Gambling Act is bringing the biggest changes to the gambling sector for more than 20 years.

The Department is committed to providing as much information as it can to the sector and the community to make the transition as smooth as possible. It will continue to produce publications, issue media releases and distribute discussion documents to help provide information.

There is much more information on its website at: http://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/wpg_URL/Services-Casino-and-Non-Casino-Gaming-Index?OpenDocument.

We are happy to provide speakers to conferences and other meetings of sector and community organisations.

Compliance statistics

Casino compliance measures for year ended 30 June 2003

Full table prepared by the CCA was published in the December 2003 issue of Gambits, page 9.

Non-casino	Year to 30 June 2003	1 July 2003 to 29 February 2004
Licences cancelled	13	6
Licences suspended	21	5
Formal warnings given	236	105

The Department encourages gambling operators to see audits and inspections as providing useful information about their gambling operation. If the Department takes action, Inspectors follow it up. The ultimate outcome of the compliance process is full compliance or cancellation.



Media contact:

Keith Manch Phone 04 495 9449
Acting Director Cellular 027 445 6420

Vincent Cholewa Phone 04 495 9350
Communications Advisor Cellular 025 272 4270