Gambling Amendment Bill

I’d like to take a call on this Bill, as someone who indulges in the odd game of Black Jack, pontoon, or craps.

However I do want to highlight the danger of problem gambling.

The ‘biggest-ever sales promotion’, leading up to Lotto’s 20th birthday this Saturday 25 August, is full of expressions of joy. We are told, and I quote, that:

“since Lotto was launched in 1987, New Zealanders have won over $3.6 billion in prizes, there have been thousands of happy winners, and thousands of happy stories of positive changes in people’s lives”.

Well, I hate to be a killjoy, but the story of gambling in Aotearoa is not exactly happy, happy, happy, joy, joy, joy.

Sure there have been changes in people’s lives, massive changes.

Some researchers estimate that there are between 1 and 3% of New Zealand adults who have experienced problems with gambling at some stage in their life.

And of course, it’s not just an individual problem.

On average, ten to seventeen people are affected by the problem gambling of one person.

It is also estimated that only fifteen percent of those with problems associated with gambling seek help – there will be many more affected who are not receiving assistance.

Gambling affects families - and communities - to tragic ends.

In monetary terms, $35 million is gambled EVERY DAY in Aotearoa here; $35 million. $5.5 million is lost every day - it’s money lost from people who can least afford it.

It’s not just about some harmless fun with an armless bandit; a shuffle of cards, a roll of the dice to see whether lady luck will strike.

Gambling creates enormous harm, especially in communities identified as high deprivation or low income.

Dr Lorna Dyall describes this as an environmental hazard due to the placement of gaming machines in eas that are predominantly decile one on the deprivation scale.

Consequently, the Māori Party has always said that we should manage gambling as a social hazard rather than a harmless leisure pursuit.

Just as people and communities are protected through management of chemical and biological hazards, so too should there be protections in place to safeguard our wellbeing from gambling, which we know is hazardous to health.

In this context, the fact that the Gambling Act 2003 hasn’t been all plain sailing, obviously concerns us.

The Act is a large, complex and very prescriptive piece of legislation and so it is not surprising that there have been difficulties with its implementation.

The purpose of this Act includes both controlling the growth of gambling and to prevent and minimise the harm caused by problem gambling.

These are worthwhile goals; goals which we support.

Controlling the Growth of Gambling

As to the first aim, to reduce the activity of gambling, it is a major problem that so little progress has been achieved since the Act was introduced in 2003.

The Department of Internal Affairs released figures on the 1st August showing that spending on pokies in bars and clubs has increased by just fewer than 5% in the last year. The Department installed an electronic monitoring system in April and so are able to produce accurate figures on pokie expenditure for the first time.

You have to wonder what’s going on, when despite the legislation, despite the regulations, the spending has still shot up by five percent.

It is disappointing but obviously necessary that four years later we have to revisit some technical amendments to clarify the definitions sections and various provisions related to gambling venues and enforcement.

And we heed the advice of the Problem Gambling Foundation that this review provides us with a great opportunity for all parties to get in behind substantial reform of the gambling industry.

We, the Maori Party, have been calling for inquiries into loan sharking and money laundering at casinos, and we have been consistently advocating for Māori to have a clear role in deciding the place of gambling in Aotearoa. This Bill may provide us with the opportunity to do just that.

Problem Gamblers

But we are pleased that the Act introduces some new provisions to identify and assist problem-gamblers, which we absolutely support.

Gambling is a huge problem for Māori.

Ethnicity, and in particular identifying as Maori, is now described as a key indicator of likely risk of problem or pathological gambling.

Dr Wiremu Manaia, of the Problem Gambling Research Initiative has reported that for many Maori people their low social-economic status make them particularly vulnerable to gambling problems.

What concerns us, however, is that whilst one in three utilizing gambling treatment services identify as Māori, reports indicate that Maori under-use gambling treatment services in relation to need.

There’s a lot more Māori out there who are experiencing gambling related harm than perhaps the figures tell us.

So what does this mean in real terms?

Well in 2003 the Salvation Army surveyed people accessing food-banks in South Auckland – over one third of people applying for food parcels had a problem gambler in their household; and of that third, 80% had two or more children.

The legislation now requires venue managers and license-holders to take all reasonable steps to assist a person identified as a problem gambler. It includes prescribing content and training standards for problem gambling awareness training.

The legislation also introduces a statutory requirement for casino/ class 4 operators to record problem gambler exclusions and provide the relevant information on request.

These are positive interventions which we are pleased to support. They demand greater attention to detail, care to identity and record individuals at risk, and all of this has to add to greater awareness and a commitment to change.

But I want also to draw the attention of the House to the courage and commitment of communities in fighting the hazard of gambling.

Last week I heard some great news coming out of my electorate in Tamaki Makaurau. South Auckland is heavily targeted by the pokie trusts because they know low income people are more likely to develop problem gambling behaviour than other sections of the population.

Gaming machines are in fact, five times more likely to be concentrated in the two most deprived deciles; along with 50% of the TAB outlets. So it’s hardly surprising that Māori and Pasifika peoples in South Auckland are over-represented amongst the stats of people affected by problem gambling.

Even worse, there is a false illusion painted that gambling returns funds to the local community. The legislation requires that a minimum of 33% of gambling profits ‘must benefit the local community’ - but that’s ‘community’ at large - not necessarily the local community from where the money was gained.

The Gambling Foundation in fact estimates that the local economy is losing seventeen times more money than what community groups are receiving back.

Against this context, it was really wonderful to hear last week, that nearly 7500 submissions have been received urging tighter restrictions on the number of pokie machines in Manukau City.

7500 submissions from people standing up, to take control of their community, challenging the armless bandits to release their grip on the people of South Auckland.

There are also many strong advocates, such as Dr Lorna Dyall, who have been calling for changes to the Gambling Act to empower communities to have the authority, to remove gambling venues and pokie machines from outside of their area.

We should expect there to be more ‘cultural’ content in existing services, that there should be increased cultural competence of clinicians; and we should expect a role in developing policy and legislation to deal with the problems, alongside the Crown. This would involve tangata whenua membership as of right on the bodies that regulate gambling.

The elimination of gambling harm must be an outright priority for this Parliament.

We will support this Bill and look forward to the select committee process to hear the ideas and advice about how best to facilitate community involvement in decisions about the provision of responsible gambling activities and which sections of our communities benefit from these activities.

We will support this Bill at the first reading.