Reform to SA gambling laws

As part of the gambling reform package, the current Social Effect Inquiry Process will be replaced by a new Community Impact Assessment, similar to that required for a liquor licence. 

The new Community Impact Assessment Guidelines are now available for feedback until Wednesday 21 October. 

Alongside clearer definitions, the guidelines outline new requirements for: 

• stakeholder engagement
• simpler statistical and demographic information
• harm minimisation. 

See Community Impact Assessment for more details. 

As part of the gambling reform package, certain licensees operating gaming machines with banknote acceptors and the Adelaide Casino will need to operate a facial recognition system to identify barred persons about to enter a gaming area. 

Licensees will only be allowed to operate facial recognition systems that have been evaluated and approved by the Liquor and Gambling Commissioner. 

Applications are now open for FRT providers to submit an application to be evaluated and approved. 

See Facial Recognition Technology for more details about the minimum technical requirements and preparing a submission. 

As part of the gambling reform package, gaming machines will be able to be operated using banknotes or tickets (commonly known as 'ticket-in ticket-out' or TITO) instead of coins. 

Gaming machines to be operated using banknotes or tickets in hotels and clubs will need to: 

• comply with the Australian/New Zealand Gaming Machine National Standard 2016 (or any subsequent version)
• be QCOM compliant (the communication protocol used by the IGC Monitoring System)
• comply with certain transaction limits on the amount of banknotes and value of tickets to be inserted into a gaming machine. 

Gaming machine manufacturers will need to submit an application to CBS so that gaming machines fitted with banknote acceptors and ticket-enabled devices can be approved for use in South Australia. 

See Banknote acceptors and TITO for more details. 

The prohibition on links between gaming machine dealers and service licensees has been removed.

This means that: 

• the holder of a gaming machine dealer's licence can also hold a gaming machine service licence
• the holder of a gaming machine dealer's licence can now be associated with the holder of a gaming machine service licence
• a person can be associated with both a gaming machine dealer licence and the holder of a gaming machine service licence.

Key stakeholders, including industry bodies and help service providers have been asked for their feedback on draft codes of practice relevant to gaming machine licensees and the Adelaide Casino. 

CBS is currently working through this feedback and assessing changes required as a result of consultation.

Work is progressing on the review of the codes of practice for Authorised Betting Operators and State Lotteries. 

As part of the legislation expiry program in South Australia, the Gaming Machine Regulations 2005 were due to expire on 1 September 2020. 

The Government recently gave approval for these regulations to be remade in their present form as the Gaming Machine Regulations 2020, commencing 1 June 2020. 

The remade regulations are identical to the previous regulations, however contain a number of minor technical changes including: 

• all references to 'he/she/him/her' have been changed to 'their/they/them' to reflect gender neutral language
• the numbering of regulations is now numerically consecutive (ie no 'A' or 'B' after regulation numbers of (ab) in sub-regulations). 

A copy of these regulations is available on the SA Legislation website. 

The Government has been consulting with key stakeholders on further changes to these regulations that will support the wider gambling reform package coming into effect later this year. 

Currently, the draft Community Impact Assessment Guidelines are open for consultation. 

Previously, key stakeholders, including industry bodies and help service providers have been asked for their feedback on draft: 

• Gambling Administration Regulations 2020
• Authorised Betting Operations (Gambling Regulation) Variation Regulations 2020
• Casino (Gambling Regulation) Variation Regulations 2020
• Gaming Machines (Gambling Regulation) Variation Regulations 2020
• minimum technical requirements for facial recognition systems
• minimum technical requirements for ticket-in ticket-out TITO systems
• industry specific advertising and responsible gambling codes of practice.

Later in the year, additional consultation will take place on new regulations governing the conduct of various lotteries and trade promotions under the new Lotteries Act 2019. 

On December 1 2018, Consumer and Business Services (CBS) assumed responsibility for all gambling regulatory and policy functions in South Australia – including those previously overseen by the Independent Gambling Authority.

These reforms arose from recommendations in the review by the Hon Tim Anderson QC.

You can read the review on parliament.sa.gov.au by searching 'Tabled Papers and Petitions'.

Search instructions - In the 'Search Text' field, include the full name of the report - Gambling Regulation in South Australia, Administrative Review of - Report 9 December 2016.