THE ROLE OF LOCAL COUNCILS

Local councils are responsible for developing the gaming venue polices within your territorial local authority. Legislation requires that these policies be reviewed every three years.

Apart from national grants, funds raised through gaming machines are returned to the local council area where they are spent. This means The Lion Foundation's ability to assist community groups and projects is directly related to the number of machines in that area. Without these machines, our ability to help is reduced.

There is no causative link between gaming machine numbers and problem gambling prevalence. Despite a significant lift in machine numbers over the last 15 years up to 2003, there has been a corresponding decline in the prevalence of problem gambling.

Some councils have taken the stance of reducing machine numbers as a harm minimisation measure. Eliminating machines is not a responsible course of action and is likely instead to transfer players to other forms of gambling which are undertaken in unregulated and unmonitored environments. Unlike community gaming, these other forms of gambling do not directly return funds to benefit the local community.

We encourage open participation in local council submission processes. Submissions may be made by any citizen, not just those with a specific interest in the issue under consideration. You can contact your local council to find out the next review date of this policy.