Risky Business: A Few Provocations on the Regulation of Electronic Gaming Machines

Abstract

Electronic gambling machines (EGMs) proliferate in Australian club and hotel venues, generating revenues of billions of dollars annually and accounting for the majority of gambling expenditure. These revenues arguably rely on unsafe consumption practices, generating considerable harm. Clear evidence is available describing unsafe levels of EGM consumption by regular EGM consumers in hotels and clubs, and indicating modifications to EGM technology and systems to minimize harm. However, a comfortable orthodoxy, the discourse of ‘business as usual’, perpetuates current arrangements, sustaining in particular a model of the ‘problem’ gambler as an individualized flawed consumer. The article argues that the marketing and distribution of EGMs is neither accidental nor something for which the individual is responsible, and neither is the safeguarding of oneself from the harm produced by goods licensed by government. Pursuit of a goal of safe consumption for all EGM gamblers requires disruption of the discourse of business as usual.

Acknowledgements

Research that informed this article's arguments was funded by the Victorian Gambling Research Panel (GRP), and on the dissolution of the GRP responsibility was transferred to the Department of Justice (Victoria) gambling research program. In the course of this project, we were provided with data describing aspects of the operation of the Victorian EGM system by the Office of Gambling Regulation (Victoria). We were assisted by staff of Gamblers' Help services in Victoria to gain access to their clients. We thank both staff and clients for their generous assistance and valuable insights. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the above funding body, the organization providing data, counselling services or research participants. We are also grateful to two anonymous reviewers for helpful and supportive comments, criticism and suggestions.

Notes

1. The Governmental Action Plan to Prevent Problem Gambling can be accessed at http://www.hjelpelinjen.no/dav/8257d7c996.pdf. (last accessed 26 February 2007). The Norwegian Government's decision to reduce and reconfigure EGMs and to create a state monopoly has not been without controversy and a panel of international experts including Volberg, Blaszczynski, Abbott and Griffiths was assembled in October 2006 to assist the development of the policy. We also note that the decision to institute a state monopoly on Norwegian EGMs has been challenged via European economic agreements. In the event that Norway's moves to monopolize the industry are disallowed, the Norwegian Government has undertaken to prohibit gaming machines from 2007. See http://www.geminiresearch.com/Symposium, http://www.geminiresearch.com/files/Volberg_&_Abbott_2005.pdf http://www.world-lotteries.org/documents/magazine/wla14/wal14_legal.pdf http://www.dinesider.no/customer/770660/archive/files/Pending%20Cases/01-06%20application%20oj%20text%20eng.pdf (all last accessed 26 February 2007).

2. These changes have had recent impacts on the profitability of Aristocrat Technologies, who hope to ‘turn around’ recent losses in the Japanese market by designing EGMs that meet new regulations. See http://www.smh.com.au/news/xchange/punters-like-iags-foray-into-uk/2006/12/06/1165081019211.html, http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20865055-643,00.html, http://www.ntnews.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,20865392,00.html (all last accessed 26 February 2007).