L&GNSW penalises two NSW venues over gaming machine shutdown breaches

Liquor & Gaming NSW has penalised the Crown Hotel in Camden and East Cessnock Bowling Club for failing to comply with mandatory gaming machine shutdown rules, the regulator's action was reported. A third venue received an official caution and a fourth was referred for formal disciplinary proceedings.

Gaming machines in pubs and clubs are normally required to be switched off from 4 am until 10 am daily, a pause intended to interrupt play and reduce gambling harm. The NSW Government scrapped older exemptions earlier this year; those exemptions had let more than 650 pubs and clubs run gaming machines through the mandatory shutdown periods. Certain venues with approved exemptions may still operate under alternative shutdown arrangements.

After the rules were changed in April of this year, inspections by L&GNSW have covered 51 venues in Sydney, the Hunter and the North Coast. Inspections will continue over the coming months, with seventy venues currently under review. Another 32 venues were given education and compliance assistance where problems were isolated or minor, or where circumstances were beyond their control.

Many of the 672 venues that had been allowed shorter shutdown periods had held those exemptions for over twenty years. Their shutdown period was usually three hours, compared with the standard six-hour requirement. A small number of venues have been assessed and approved by the Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority (ILGA), which is separate from L&GNSW, to keep the shorter shutdown period.

Dimitri Argeres, who serves as executive director of regulatory operations at L&GNSW, described the six-hour shutdown period as an important harm-minimization measure. According to him, most of the venues that were reviewed had met their obligations, though a small number of breaches were found. Those breaches, he said, have resulted in penalties, regulatory action and ongoing investigations. Argeres further explained that the regulator applies an intelligence-led and proportionate approach to enforcement, cooperating with venues on minor or isolated compliance issues and acting more firmly against significant or repeated breaches.