14th Feb 2018, 4:15 PM – Senate Motions - Gambling - Phase out poker machines

The majority voted against this motion, which means it failed.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) Australia is home to 0.3 per cent of the world's population, but 18 per cent of the world's poker machines,

(ii) Australians lose more money to poker machines than anywhere else in the world per capita,

(iii) most countries around the world, 226 out of 238, have no poker machines in pubs and clubs,

(iv) a 2010 study by the Productivity Commission found that problem gamblers account for 40 per cent of losses on poker machines,

(v) suicide rates among problem gamblers are twice the rate of other addictions, and

(vi) problem gamblers are far more vulnerable to depression, relationships breakdown, job loss, lowered work productivity, bankruptcy and crime;

(b) acknowledges that:

(i) poker machines have caused a significant degree of social and economic dislocation in the community, and

(ii) the regulation of poker machines is a litmus test of good government; and

(c) calls on the Government to support states in phasing out poker machines in pubs, because the fewer poker machines, the better.