Poker machines will be switched off for longer on weeknights, cash withdrawals in venues with the machines will be banned and the number of machines will be cut to the lowest level in decades under a new set of ACT laws.
Gaming Minister Marisa Paterson will on Tuesday outline a series of changes that include simplifying the self-exclusion system for people wanting to be kept away from poker machines and a legislated cap of allowing only 1000 machines in the ACT by 2045.
The number of machines will be cut by 500 every four years and poker machines will be made cash-free a year after the government's new law is passed.
"These reforms reduce access to cash creating an important break in play and gives people time to reconsider spending more than they intended. The eftpos withdrawal ban, coupled with an ATM ban to follow in 2027, provide practical and timely safeguards to reduce gambling harm," Dr Paterson said.
"Extending the mandatory shutdown period for poker machines by 15 hours each week will further minimise gambling harm by reducing access to machines during the early morning.
"Together, these reforms recognise the scale of that challenge and put stronger safeguards around the gambling product associated with the greatest harm in our community."
Dr Paterson will introduce the bills to cut the number of machines, limit hours and change the self-exclusion system to the Legislative Assembly in October.
The government will use regulation to ban eftpos withdrawals in poker machine venues before the end of the year and ATMs will be banned a year after the Gaming Machine (Harm Prevention and Reduction) Amendment Bill 2026 becomes law, the government said.
But the government's package also includes the introduction of mandatory cash-free gaming cards, requiring players to set up an account with a venue and load their card and set a maximum loss limit.
"Your account will track how much you have spent and lost on poker machines within a venue. This will provide you with a clearer picture of your gambling losses," the government said.
"Clubs will also need to enforce a 15-minute break in play after every hour of continuous poker machine play. The new mandatory break in play every hour will prevent long periods of continuous gambling which can be harmful."
The account-based cashless gaming system would have a two-year implementation period after a harm reduction bill passed the Assembly, the government said.
The self-exclusion system will be updated to introduce a digital application form and give people greater choice over the amount of time they want to voluntarily bar themselves from poker machine venues.
"You will be able to choose to self-exclude for any period between 6 months and 5 years. Previously you could only choose up to 3 years. This will provide the option to self-exclude for a longer period if you want to take a longer break," the government said.
New regulation will also force venues to switch off poker machines between 2am and 10am, Monday to Thursday and between 2am and 9am on Friday. The Friday and Saturday hours will stay the same.
The government said the changes would reduce the availability of poker machines late at night when the risk of gambling harm might be higher.
ACT Labor promised before the 2024 election to cut the number of poker machines in the territory to 1000 by 2045 and introduce cashless gaming in 2026-27, along with a ban on ATM and eftpos withdrawals in gaming venues.
Poker machines were introduced in the ACT in 1976 amid concern the territory was missing out on taxes as gamblers headed over the border to NSW to play in Queanbeyan, where the machines had been legal since the 1950s.
The ACT moved to cap the number of poker machines at 5200 in 1998 and has been reducing the number of machines since 2010, including through voluntary surrender schemes and other help and incentives for clubs to diversify their revenue sources.
A compulsory surrender scheme was legislated but clubs handed back enough poker machine authorisations to exceed a target of 3500 machines by July 1, 2025.
The report from a major independent review of the ACT's clubs sector, released in June, said stripping more poker machines from Canberra's clubs before they were supported to overhaul their businesses risked hollowing out the community sector and forcing them to shut.
ClubsACT, the sector's local industry body, has previously criticised the government's focus on cutting poker machines, arguing not enough support has been provided for clubs to diversify their businesses.
"I often refer to poker machines as the Facebook of gambling product. You tend to see them more attractive to older patrons than younger people. There are transitions taking place in the market. Every club should have the capacity to manage that as a commercial process themselves," ClubsACT's chief executive, Craig Shannon, told a parliamentary inquiry late last year.
"But when you have direct intervention over the top of that, by government directing things that reduce or decline your revenue capacity, it will have a very direct impact on the capacity of the clubs to transition out of reliance on that revenue base and continue to provide the services and deliver the support they are doing now."
