NZCT has made a submission to the Ministry of Health on its proposed Strategy to Prevent and Minimise Gambling Harm 2019/20 to 2021/22 and the problem gambling levy rates for the next three years.
NZCT's position is as follows.
We do not support the proposals to establish a consumer network, new counselling offices in small towns and a residential care service. None of these are likely to help enough problem gamblers to justify their cost. The $3.5m proposed to be allocated to developing these services would be much better spent funding facial recognition software licensing, support fees and hardware for high-risk, high-turnover venues.
We strongly recommend the 30/70 weighting for levy payments. This option provides the greatest weight to expenditure, which is a robust, objective measure based on accurate data from all forms of gambling, unlike presentations which are highly subjective and represent only a small sub-section of gamblers.
The 30/70 weighting provides the most appropriate apportionment, which reflects the 5.7% increase in expenditure that has occurred on Lotto products and the 7.1% decrease in expenditure on pub gaming machines since 2009/10.
There are two major barriers to moving class 4 venues out of lower socioeconomic areas: council gambling venue policies and the Department of Internal Affairs' refusal to apply the principles of the Waikiwi Tavern decision to other potential relocations.
> Read our full submission (PDF, 1.2 MB)