Outrage over Australian pokie creche plan

Photo / Hawkes Bay Today

SYDNEY - Amid public outrage, the Victorian Government yesterday ordered an urgent review of a decision to allow Melbourne developers to build a pub with a children's playroom overlooking poker machines.

Approval for the soundproof glass room, which would let parents keep an eye on their children while gambling at the proposed Pink Hill Hotel in Beaconsfield, was given last week by the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation.

Its executive director, Peter Cohen, said yesterday that it was less harmful for children to see the poker machines than to be left unsupervised.

But the "socially irresponsible" decision horrified anti-gaming campaigners, who warned that the play area could promote problem gambling among parents using it as a babysitting service.

Paul Bendat, a leading critic of poker machines, said: "It's a disgrace. It basically normalises gambling. Little kids say, 'Look at all the grandmas and grandpas playing all the pokies in the room."'

Declaring himself "uneasy", Gaming Minister Tony Robinson, ordered the commission to reconsider.

"We do not want to create a circumstance where people might spend longer gaming while their children are supervised," he said.

The controversy follows publication last month of a report by the federal Government's Productivity Commission, which found that problem gamblers account for about 40 per cent of total spending on pokies.

It recommended tough new restrictions, including a A$1 limit on bets and an end to "unjustified" tax concessions on gaming revenue.

Australia has one-fifth of the world's poker machines. States and territories reap A$19 billion ($23 billion) a year in taxes from them.

The Pink Hill Hotel case reached the commission after Cardinia Council refused to grant planning permission for the A$8.4 million venue and turned down an application for 60 poker machines, after receiving 122 objections from the community.

Cohen defended his decision on Melbourne radio, saying: "I'm a realist. People will gamble. If they are going to gamble, I would rather they have their children supervised."

He recalled an incident in 2004 when a small boy died after being left in a car outside a gaming venue in Victoria.