ATMs ok, credit cards not, at gambling dens

Cash withdrawals at automatic teller machines located in gambling venues nationwide would be limited to $200 per person, per day, if the draft report of the Productivity Commission on gambling were adopted as policy.

Cash withdrawals on credit cards would be prohibited.

However, an extension of bans on ATMs at gambling venues is not a recommendation of the commission in its report, released yesterday. Rather, they propose an evaluation of the ATM ban recently introduced in Victoria.

There is little adverse news for the independent owners of ATMs (such as Customers Ltd, Cashcard and iCash Payments) and who have placed around 99 per cent of ATMs at gambling venues. (Bank-owned ATMs account for only one per cent of cash machines in gaming venues.)

The Productivity Commission inquiry, requested by the Australian government, is an attempt to draw together the disparate regulation of the sector, including the patchy responses to evidence of problem gambling. Most instances of the latter occur at poker machine venues.