Consultation was open between Monday 27 May and closed Friday 21 June, 5:00pm.
Community had the opportunity to provide feedback on Council's draft gambling harm minimisation policy, as part of Council's commitment to reducing harm from gambling activities.
Council's commitment to reducing harm from gambling activities is set out in Casey's Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2021-25, which provides direction on the municipality's health and wellbeing priorities and builds upon Council’s previous Electronic Gaming Machine (EGM) Strategy 2015-20.
In the past year alone (2022/23), almost $160 million has been lost to electronic gaming machines across Casey. This represents the greatest losses for the municipality in a twelve month period and has occurred as emerging forms of gambling (e.g. online, sports betting) have also seen rapid growth, catering to new segments of the population.
The five key areas which Council will address harm from gambling are:
- Advocacy
- Community development and engagement
- Planning and regulation
- Leadership
- Research and data
The policy was adopted at Councils August 2024 meeting.
