A prominent gambling researcher is urging the Queensland government to make it mandatory for gamblers to preset a spending limit on poker machines, saying it is a powerful harm reduction measure.
Charles Livingstone, who heads the gambling and social determinants unit at Monash University's school of public health and preventive medicine, said a mandatory pre-commitment requirement on pokies players should be implemented across the more than 40,000 machines in the state's pubs and clubs.
