Queensland Government Proposes Casino Reforms

Now, the Queensland government is taking steps to pass and implement casino reforms now. They want to get in front of the problem and negate the need for its own casino inquiry.

New Casino Control Bill

In late May, the Honourable Shannon Fentiman issued a memo in her capacity as Attorney General and Minister for Justice. She made public the reforms she proposed in the Casino Control and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. It is a wide-ranging bill.

The overall goal is to help prevent criminal influence and exploitation in casinos. By improving the current laws, Fentiman hopes to prevent Queensland from having to initiate the lengthy and expensive process of a casino inquiry.

“This bill will ensure Queenslanders can have confidence in the integrity of our casino laws,” Fentiman said. “These reforms seek to address concerns which have emerged from the public inquiries into casinos operated by Crown Resorts in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia, as well as investigations underway into the Star Entertainment Group.”

Importantly, she wants the new laws and regulations in place before the Star opens its casino at Qheen’s Wharf.

Proposed Changes

The list of reforms is comprehensive and serious. They are examples of best practices in the gambling industry.

• Move toward traceable electronic transactions, including new payment methods, to transition to cashless gaming. The Finkelstein Inquiry into Crown demonstrated that this can be an effective way to prevent money laundering.
• Maintain strong gambling harm minimisation measures and strengthen where possible.
• Introduce pecuniary penalties as a disciplinary measure to punish casino operators with fines of up to $50M.
• Enable flexibility to incorporate new approaches to gaming in the future as technology develops and provides more ways to address potential risks early.

It is important to Queensland that they not only address specific problems but leave the bill open to add new reforms when necessary.

Gambling Harm Minimisation

Queensland has been updating the gaming section of its website. Specifically, the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation (OLGR) has been improving its measures consistently.

Currently, the OLGR focuses on early intervention and prevention, consumer protections, and customer service representatives and tools to offer aid to people experiencing some kind of gambling danger.

Last year, the regulator launched a campaign called “When gambling took over.” This series of commercials and advertisements illustrate the ease with which some people can allow gambling to dominate their lives. Of course, it focuses on ways to prevent this from happening.

This is all ahead of this year’s Gambling Harm Awareness Week. It will happen 18-24 July.

Queen’s Wharf Update

The Queen’s Wharf has been a long time in the making. Queensland entered into a development agreement in late 2015. And it took nearly two years to garner final approvals for the multi-billion-dollar project, which then embarked on its long journey to fruition. And it’s not there yet.

As a part of the deal, there will be hotel rooms and apartments, public spaces and retail. And the plan was to repurpose and open the Treasury Casino & Hotel. The new Queen’s Wharf Brisbane Casino would open in conjunction with the integrated resort. And Star Entertainment is in charge of it all.

The timeline for the casino redevelopment is unclear, though the construction updates seem to indicate a 2024 restoration year. That may be enough time for the Queensland government to implement new casino laws and work with Star to ensure they’ll be following the law.

In addition, the new law will allow for a much smoother cashless transaction system to fit in with the casino’s updated image.