Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan is being urged to fast-track nation-leading poker machine reform because of the guardrails it will provide problem gamblers, amid backlash from the pokies lobby and the state opposition.
In 2023, then-premier Daniel Andrews announced that anyone wanting to play a poker machine in Victoria would have to set limits on how much they were willing to lose before playing the pokies. A special card would be required to play.
A bill to give the government the power to set up carded play was introduced to the parliament last November and will be debated this week — the Allan government says a trial will be held in 40 venues for three months beginning in the middle of this year.