‘Grave social evil’: Howard urges government to crack down on pokies

 AFR  - Greg Bearup and Zoe Samios - May 10, 2025

Former prime minister John Howard has declared poker machines a “grave social evil” and demanded that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese lead the charge for national gambling reform.

“Governments are elected to do things,” Howard told AFR Weekend. He said he would lend his voice to push the Liberal Party to offer bipartisan support to take on the powerful gambling lobby.

John Howard is demanding that Anthony Albanese introduce national gambling reforms.  

“I am strongly in favour of national action,” Howard said. “But I am pessimistic about the willingness of the Labor Party to do anything on poker machines. It looks like Albanese has gone to water [on the issue] and I couldn’t be more critical.”

When asked if the gambling lobby in Australia was as powerful as the National Rifle Association in the US, he said: “Well, they certainly seem to have a lot of power.”

Howard’s comments are in response to an investigation by AFR Weekend, which reveals that the number of poker machines in Alice Springs has increased by 184 in the past four years.

Of those new machines, 174 were in establishments belonging to IRIS Capital, owned by Sydney billionaire and AFR Rich Lister Sam Arnaout. He now owns 460 of the town’s 570 machines.

Local health authorities, gambling experts, and Indigenous leaders say there is a direct link between poker machine addiction and domestic violence and other crimes.

The gaming here is targeted at local people and vulnerable people.  — Former NT attorney-general, Chansey Paech

Howard said gaming operators, such as Arnaout, had a responsibility to ensure they were not causing harm to patrons. “We all have an ethical responsibility,” he said, but “governments are elected to do things”.

A spokesman for IRIS said it took its regulatory requirements and its responsibility to its patrons very seriously and had compliance and robust harm-minimisation measures in place.

“We do not promote gambling as the core focus of our venues,” the spokesman said. “Instead, we offer a well-rounded hospitality experience that includes accommodation, dining, entertainment, and responsible gaming.”

Howard’s call for national intervention to combat gambling has the backing of former Northern Territory attorney-general Chansey Paech.

Until Labor’s defeat last August, Paech oversaw gambling in the territory, and said a federal intervention akin to Howard’s sweeping gun law reforms was needed.

“We’re not an Indian Reservation in America where people go to play pokies,” he said. “People don’t come to Alice Springs to go to the casino. The gaming here is targeted at local people and vulnerable people.”

The NT’s former attorney-general, Chansey Paech, backs Howard’s call for gambling reform. 

Each year, Territorians lose $2130 on average, more than punters in any other state. The NT government is also more reliant than any other state or territory on taking a cut of these losses, raking in $573 per head in gambling taxes, which provides it with $108 million in revenue.

A spokesman for IRIS said that when it increased its poker machines at two pubs in Alice by 20 machines, it compiled a “comprehensive” community impact analysis by a “qualified professional” and submitted it to the Director-General of licensing.

However, it also increased machine numbers at its casino by 154, and faced no scrutiny. Lasseter’s casino doesn’t fall under the NT’s poker machine cap and can increase the number of machines as it pleases.

The spokesman said IRIS’s casino compliance manager, who also has oversight of gaming at the Todd Tavern and the Gap View Hotel, was a past board member of the gambling counselling and support service, Amity. “IRIS has market-leading expertise in identifying problem gambling,” he said.

“Gaming is a legal and regulated form of entertainment in Australia. We reject generalisations that [IRIS] targets any one group, and we remain focused on delivering safe, inclusive, and respectful experiences for everyone who visits.”

The spokesman said IRIS welcomed consideration of any measure that would reduce gambling harm.

Some people are anti-gambling [in all forms] and those views can, at times, infect a considered and proper discussion of the real issues.  — A spokesman for Iris Capital

Paech said the ideal model was Western Australia, which had poker machines only at its casinos, and none in pubs and clubs. “That would be the most desirable outcome,” he said. At the very least, the Territory should introduce similar measures to Tasmania, where there are limits on how much can be spent in a day. He said reliance on poker machines was not an effective business model for pubs and clubs.

Indigenous leaders and local health experts said there was a direct link between poker machines and crime and domestic violence in Alice Springs.

Dr John Boffa, the chief public health medical officer at the Central Aboriginal Congress, said there were “three incredibly destructive factors” – alcohol, electronic gambling and pornography. “And when you get the three together, like we have, you get massive rates of domestic violence,” he said.

Indigenous leaders and gambling experts said the majority of punters and patrons in IRIS’ two Alice pubs were Indigenous.

IRIS rejects the claim. “Unless these experts have intimate and detailed knowledge about each Indigenous patron who frequents the venues, it is hard to see how the above conclusion is anything more than a broad assumption based on racial profiling,” an IRIS spokesman said.

“Some people are anti-gambling [in all forms] and those views can, at times, infect a considered and proper discussion of the real issues.”

NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro, who came to power last year with a tough law and order agenda and promised an “enormous” crackdown on crime, declined to be interviewed. She passed on a list of questions about the link between problem gambling and crime to her minister for racing, Marie-Clare Boothby.

Boothby did not address this link, but said the effects of gambling “are monitored closely throughout the Territory, including vulnerable groups”,

“We must protect people at risk without punishing responsible gamblers or the venues that support local jobs and communities,” she said. “The Community Benefit Fund, funded by a 10 per cent levy on gaming machines, provides grants for the community and research programs focused on gambling harm prevention and reduction.”

The states regulating is like Dracula in charge of the blood bank – a profound conflict of interest.  — Tim Costello, gambling reform advocate

Gambling expert Dr Charles Livingstone, who works at Monash University, said the NT had the weakest gambling oversight in the country. “By and large, it’s left up to the venues to regulate themselves, which is entirely like the fox looking after the hen house,” he said.

Paech said that when he attempted to get even moderate gaming reform through the cabinet, his colleagues were “scared” of the backlash from the gaming lobby, and that it did not matter which party attempted it – any reform of gambling regulations was “very, very difficult”.

Gambling reform has proven difficult to accomplish in Australia. Change is instigated only by independent inquiries and legal action from regulators.

The country’s two biggest casino operators – Star Entertainment and Crown Resorts – have been forced to implement strict regulatory measures to reduce gambling harm and money laundering because of three royal commission-style inquiries, which found they had been allowing criminals to operate inside their precincts.

The measures include mandatory identification cards and cash limits on poker machines, but these regulations are imposed on a state-by-state basis and are not extended to pubs and clubs.

Separately, Australia’s local wagering industry came under scrutiny following a government inquiry into online gambling.

The biggest online bookmakers in Australia are licensed in the Northern Territory because of lower tax rates and less regulation. Complaints about online gambling advertising are referred to the Territory’s regulator, which is also supposed to oversee poker machine usage.

Gambling reform advocate Tim Costello says the regulation of the industry should not be left to a “non-independent” Northern Territory Racing and Gaming Commission.

“The culture of the regulatory board in the Northern Territory has literally been encouraging gambling because it is a source of revenue,” Costello said.

“A $32 billion industry – bigger than aged care, bigger than NDIS, effectively falls back to the NT Racing and Gaming Commission. They’re not able to do their job, which is pokies in the territory and abuse.”

Costello says the industry should be overseen by a national regulator.

“The states regulating is like Dracula in charge of the blood bank – a profound conflict of interest. There is not in any state department a person dealing with gambling,” he said. “They treat it as racing, sport, and revenue. They should hand over their powers to a national regulator.”