Page 5852 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 7 December 2010
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(3.21): For the information of members, I present the following paper:
Gaming Machine Act, pursuant to section 168—Community contributions made by gaming machine licensees—Report by the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission—1 July 2009 to 30 June 2010, dated 26 October 2010.
I ask leave to make a statement in relation to the paper.
Leave granted.
MR BARR: I present the report on community contributions made by gaming machine licensees for the period 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2010. The report is a requirement of the Gaming Machine Act 2004 and is made by the Gambling and Racing Commission. The act requires club licensees to make a minimum community contribution of seven per cent of their net gaming machine revenue each financial year.
Hotel and tavern gaming machine licensees are not required by the act to make contributions. However, it is compulsory for them to submit a financial report to the commission. The legislation outlines the broad purposes that a contribution must meet to be approved by the commission as a community contribution. In addition, guidelines in Gaming Machine Regulation 2004 provide further assistance to the commission and to licensees as to what types of expenditure would be approved as a community contribution.
Gaming machine licensees can make community contributions to the following categories: charitable and social welfare, sport and recreation, non-profit activities and community infrastructure. In order to encourage contributions to women’s sport and for assistance with problem gambling issues, the legislation provides an incentive for licensees by allowing them to claim $4 for every $3 actually contributed.
The commission’s report provides information on three main aspects: the extent to which licensees use their revenue to make community contributions, the level of contributions in each reporting category and legislative compliance by gaming machine licensees.
The commission’s report outlines the total value of community contributions from clubs in 2009-10, and this amount was $13.6 million. This was a slight decrease of 0.7 per cent from the level of contributions made in 2008-09. In the 2009-10 financial year, the club industry had net gaming machine revenue totalling $97.6 million, which was a decrease of one per cent on the previous financial year. Community contributions, as a proportion of net gaming machine revenue, were 13.9 per cent in 2009-10, which was marginally higher than the amount experienced in 2008-09 and, again, well above the seven per cent minimum contribution level required.
As in previous years, the level of contributions to the sport and recreation categories consistently and significantly outweighs the level of contributions to the other categories. In 2009-10, sport and recreation received in excess of $9 million, or over 66 per cent of all contributions. The commission’s report shows that the adjusted
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