Altering the tax rate of specific poker machines, rather than of the venue within which they reside, could underscore gaming legislation agreeable to all concerned parties.
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At least, that is according to well-known Tasmanian accountant and economist John Lawrence.
Mr Lawrence made an extensive submission to the Future of Gaming in Tasmania Public Consultation Paper in March last year where he detailed how a "step-tax-rate" could aid harm minimisation across the electronic gaming machine industry.
Now, he believes as much as ever those changes could be what unites gaming empires, pub owners and poker machine opponents ahead of a proposed legislation being voted on Tasmanian parliament.
Mr Lawrence's proposition would see pokies with more harm minimisation strategies programmed into them taxed at a lower rate, while those with less strategies cost the owner more.
"With a step-tax-rate, the venue owner has an incentive to move to a model with harm minimisation built in" he said.
He said with the legislation in its current consultative form, the changes could be implemented while retaining a number of the other proposals.
In the past discussions have considered a tender process in which proposed poker machine owners would make offers for machine based on their "value" - how much money they will make.
Mr Lawrence said despite good intentions, it was unlikely a tender process would work because poker machines are already so widely distributed around Tasmania and tender prices would be at the liberty of the current owner.
"The legislation proposes a licence system but then you need an electronic gaming machine authority for each machine, it's tailor made for introducing new systems," he said.
"An EGM authority could be introduced, and it could introduce these tax rates."
Harm minimisation has remained part of the Future of Gaming discussion as anti-pokie advocates look for ways to find a common ground between businesses protecting pokies profits, and members of the community they believe are susceptible to poker machine addiction.
As pokies are programmable, harm minimisation tactics are able to be added to them in a way that reduces the psychological impact the machine has on the player.
Mr Lawrence said machines with more harm minimisation tactics on board could then be charged at a lower rate to pokie owners to encourage them to opt for machines which he believed would reduce the impact on addicted gamblers.
In April this year government data showed Tasmanians had spent $150 million on the state's 97 poker machine venues since coronavirus restrictions eased in 2020.
Launceston is one of the state's biggest poker machine spenders. The town's pokies receive about $1.5 million of revenue each month across its 366 machines.
The state government's Future of Gaming public consultation paper describes the harm minimisation framework in Tasmania as "best practice". "Harm minimisation has continued to be front of mind during the development of the changes to be introduced under the new arrangements," it reads.
The next steps for the Future of Gaming legislation will see it introduced into the Tasmanian lower house at some stage this year. If it passes the lower house, the upper house will take their turn at scrutinising the legislation.
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