By Violet Li
Casey recorded a $159 million loss in gambling venues in the 2022-2023 financial year, which exceeds its previous greatest loss, a draft Gambling Harm Minimisation Policy reveals.
Casey currently has ranked second for Electronic Gaming Machines (EGM) losses among Victorian local councils, behind only the City of Brimbank.
The EGM losses dropped significantly during Covid but increased by 40 per cent to $159 million from 2022 to 2023. The greatest loss pre-Covid documented was $132 million in the 2018-2019 financial year. Up to March 2024, the losses amounted to $119 million in the last financial year.
The draft shows that there are 13 EGM gaming venues across Casey distributed disproportionately within lower socioeconomic communities, including five clustered in Cranbourne and smaller clusters in Hampton Park and Hallam.
Council states that this presented significant potential for harm to some of the municipality’s most disadvantaged communities.
Council also states the concern that Casey’s growth areas have seen new venue applications, but those communities had not established demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, which made the assessment of vulnerability challenging.
“Moreover, the relative lack of community and recreational facilities lessens the availability of alternative recreational options in these areas, heightening the risk of harm,” the council states.
The draft reveals that the Council has taken a public health approach to minimise the harm caused by gambling and will also address the harm through five key areas, including advocacy, planning and regulation, leadership, research and data, and community development and engagement.
In the planning and regulation policy, Council states that it aims to ensure planning permits licensing applications relating to EGMs are assessed and responded to according to their social and economic impacts.
Council will discourage those that have not demonstrated a net community benefit.
It will also consider discouraging new gaming venues in growth areas where the community and land use patterns have yet to be established and gaming venues and gaming machines from identified areas of disadvantage and gambling vulnerability.
A four-week public exhibition of the draft has seen many residents call for the Council to take a “bold step” to update the Casey Planning Scheme to ban any new EGM facilities, and if possible, phase out all EGMs in existing facilities over coming years. Some submissions also note that the word “discourage” used in the policy is soft, ambiguous and lacks commitment.
In response, Council says it does not have the authority to ban new or existing EGM venues outright.
“Council commits to reviewing the Casey Planning Scheme and planning policy to further strengthen decision-making guidelines on the locational characteristics where EGM venues are discouraged.”
Casey Council has deferred the endorsement of the Gambling Harm Minimisation Policy to August’s council meeting for more input.