Venues will be made to shut their gaming operations for at least six hours a day; except Crown Casino.
Stricter gambling measures are due to be put in place in Victoria, Australia at some point in 2024, but an exact implementation date is yet to be set.
The Andrews Labor Government is introducing new reforms to increase responsible gambling policies within Victoria.
One of the main changes will consist of gaming venues requiring to introduce a compulsory sign-in card and loss limits on poker machines.
There will be different ‘load limits’ introduced too – the maximum amount of money a player can feed into a poker machine at any one time – that will be cut from AU$1,000 (US$681) to $100 under the changes.
Among that, venues will be made to shut their gaming operations for at least six hours a day. By mid-next year, there will be mandatory closure periods between 4am and 10am that will be enforced for gaming machine areas in all venues except Crown Casino.
The Government has also announced plans to decrease the spin rate on poker machines, to effectively slow the pace of gaming to potentially limit losses; this will rise from the current 2.1 seconds per game to three seconds.
The money put into the machines will also be tracked under the reforms, which the Government hopes will prevent money laundering through gaming venues.
Premier Daniel Andrews said: “These reforms will provide the strongest gambling harm prevention and anti-money laundering measures in Australia.”