Both the NSW Poker machine laws are currently up for review. Public comment is being requested on the appropriateness on the current laws.
If anyone has a position on the damage that the pokies have done to the music scene in NSW, NOW is the time to say it, and lobby for solutions and compensation.
Here are some strategic points to target in your letters and emails to the NSW Government, and send to this address policy@olgr.nsw.gov.au
1.. Poker machines are exempt from planning approvals, yet a musician or actor requires consent. This exemption should be removed if we are to be a fair and humane society
2.. The impact on previous entertainment activities unable to now compete in the cost benefit analysis with these machines should be addressed by requiring a quota of cultural activity as well in the same venue, indexed to the number of machines.
3.. The social impacts on communities from the changes to hotels function and decor made by combined gambling activities should be taken seriously, and resources allocated to ensure that the primary purpose of hotels is not gambling is enforced. Primary purpose is defined as follows:
(a) the primary purpose of the business conducted in a hotel is to be the sale of liquor by retail,
(b) the keeping or operation of approved gaming machines in a hotel is not to detract unduly from the character of the hotel or from the enjoyment of persons using the hotel otherwise than for the purposes of gambling.
The cumulative impact of Pokies, PUBTAB, Texas Hold-em Poker and other gambling activities should also be taken into account when assessing if the primary purpose of the business is the sale of liquor, or if there is an effective intensification of gambling activities that have transformed the premises into a “gaming den”.
4.. Funds should be allocated to support mechanisms for live music in licensed premises, such as are already in place in South Australia, Queensland, and Western Australia.
5.. A fund should be set up from hotel gambling for community benefit, such as the ClubsNSW CDSE scheme. This fund should have a distribution in its charter to the performing Arts, as well as to social services. It is noted that tax revenue in excess of $1 Billion dollars is received annually from hotel and clubs alone, not to mention their combined profits of $5 Billion dollars.
The same submission can be sent to each of the review processes, however, note that submissions on the tax act are due earlier, and unlike the Gaming Machines Act, are on the public record.
Submissions on the Statutory review of the Gaming Machines Act 2001
The final date for receipt of submissions at policy@olgr.nsw.gov.au is 31 July 2007.
Submissions on the Gaming Machines Act remain confidential.
Submissions on the Statutory Review of the Gaming Machine Tax Act 2001 –
Sen submissions to the Office of State Revenue at gmt.review@osr.nsw.gov.au
Submissions on the Tax act are public documents