Paul Newson, Principal at Senet Legal and former head of the NSW gaming regulator, argues the time has come for Australia to legalize online poker. The prohibition of online poker goes some way to revealing the sometimes slipshod and outdated gambling policy settings in Australia. On one view, policy approaches in Australian jurisdictions can be resistant to nuance and innovation, lack rigor and cogency and where aggravated by politicization, precipitate binary unsophisticated thinking and regulation, and blunt interventions. Looking ahead, perhaps more worrying is the risk of policy approaches motivated by tainted or shallow analysis, unsupported by adequate assessment of merits and trade-offs, and undermined by limited, if any, monitoring and independent evaluation. The complexity of the industry and regulation of the sector is belied by uninterested politicians and bureaucracy arguably unprepared to create the conditions for sector innovation, vitality and leadership and while effectively managing commercial and harm prevention tensions to foster a sustainable, vibrant industry and advanced responsible gambling outcomes.
In an August 2018 Special Report to the NSW Parliament, consistent with section 31 of the Ombudsman Act 1974 , under the heading Key Lessons for Whole-of-Government Managing restructures in the public service, the NSW Ombudsman referred to serious concerns about the “devastating” impact on organizational and staff capability of successive machinery of government changes regarding the management and administration of water resources in NSW. But media attention and scrutiny of such matters is fleeting, rarer still under COVID saturation, and political convenience and pyrrhic budget savings prevail over efficacy in most encounters.
While the NSW Ombudsman was responding to serious issues identified in water regulation, the same concerns apply to the inept approaches to government administration foiling effective gambling oversight. The disrepair of gambling regulatory arrangements in some Australian jurisdictions and degraded capability through repeated machinery of government interventions in regulatory settings, structures and operation – NSW illustrates naging the case perhaps uniquely – remains at odds with the NSW Ombudsman’s ominous 2018 findings, and the patent need for conviction, strategic leadership and modern and capable industry supervision. Parliament House in Canberra, Australia. While the opportunity to independently […]
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