The state government has released a crucial independent report on gambling in Tasmania, which Labor says “exposes the Liberals’ lies”.
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While the Social and Economic Impact Study of Gambling in Tasmania showed that real expenditure on pokies continued to trend downwards, the report also appears to contradict some of the statements made by the government when it announced its poker machine policy last Tuesday.
It found there were 317 full-time equivalent poker machine industry workers in pubs and clubs with pokies.
It is Labor’s policy to remove pokies from pubs and clubs entirely by 2023.
The Liberals have claimed that 5000 jobs would be at risk if Labor was allowed to pursue its plan.
The report also found that 0.6 per cent of Tasmanians were problem gamblers.
“The fact is that the report confirms previous reports that not only is electronic gaming machine gambling declining, problem gamblers continue to comprise a tiny proportion of the Tasmanian population,” Treasurer Peter Gutwein said.
Tasmanian Council of Social Services chief executive Kym Goodes said the report showed that the total industry workforce, including casinos, represented just 0.05 per cent of total full-time employment in the state.
“These figures show that seven times more Tasmanians have a gambling problem than are employed full time for the gaming industry in pubs and clubs,” Ms Goodes said.
Opposition finance spokesman Scott Bacon said it was “a disgrace” that the government had not consulted the SEIS evidence in compiling its own pokies policy.
“The [report] exposes the Liberal government’s lies and confirms why the Treasurer tried to bury the report itself,” he said.