Gambling harm minimisation must be at forefront of new TAB Entain partnership
The Problem Gambling Foundation (PGF) says harm minimisation must be at the forefront of the TAB Entain partnership and today’s announcement was light on detail about what will be done to protect consumers.
Andree Froude, Director of Communications at PGF, says Minister McAnulty showed a clear commitment to harm minimisation in his speech but the devil will be in the detail.
“It was good to hear that an additional $5 million would go towards harm minimisation but experts in gambling harm need to be part of that conversation,” she says.
“Our concern is that Entain has incurred a raft of regulatory failures over recent years and as the best indicator of future performance is past performance, Entain’s form isn’t great.”
“Can we rely on Entain bringing “world class experience” in harm minimisation to this country when its track record is so poor.”
In March this year Entain-owned bookmaker Ladbrokes was fined AU$80,000 by the Northern Territory Racing Commission (NTRC) after the company was found to have failed in its responsibility to limit the spending of a gambler who had stolen millions of dollars from his clients to fund his gambling addiction.
Andree Froude says this partnership reinforces the need to have robust harm minimisation regulations for online gambling and alongside that monitoring and compliance will be key.
“We would like to see additional harm minimisation measures put in place including mandatory pre-commitment on deposit limits, prohibiting inducements, restricting the advertising and sponsorship of gambling, and mandatory staff training in online gambling host responsiblity which should be a requirement of a licence to operate in this country,” she says.
“This has to be enforced by strict penalties if these regulations are breached.”
