A step in the right direction but still weaksauce compared to WA banning them outright. They ruin not just the lives of gamblers and their families but also pub culture in general.
It isn’t so much that WA banned them, they just never got a foothold, here.
Plenty of pokies at the casino if you want to go there, and there are even shuttle busses that will take old people to the casino totally free from assorted suburbs in the spirit of community service.
There’s little interest in them here, either. Also no suburban pubs open until 7am.
Western Australians really don’t know what they’re missing out on, with no pokies in local pubs. And I’d personally love to keep it that way.
I thought they have actually been banned though? Aside from the casino.
There’s this page from the state government:
Any gaming machine of the kind generally known or described as a poker machine, fruit machine (or any similar machine) is prohibited in Western Australia under section 85 of the Gaming and Wagering Commission Act 1987. Further, section 22 of the Casino Control Act 1984 allows the Commission to declare games authorised for use at the Casino, with the exception of games played with poker machines.
I’m certain they’re not legal, or we’d see pubs trying them. My point was WA never had that thing where every pub has pokies in it in the first place.
So true regarding pub culture. (And of course ruining lives)
I was about 25 when pokies were brought into Victoria. So many pubs in the suburbs which had live music soon shut down temporarily, and when they reopened they were all pokies venues.
It was very damaging for the live music scene.
