Hume council will commit to a stronger stance against gambling in its draft Gambling Harm Policy.
Endorsed for public exhibition at the 24 November meeting, the new policy will take stronger action than the previous 2019 policy, which Cr Karen Shery said used mainly advisory language that had limited enforceability.
“This new draft includes clear binding and enforceable clauses,” she said.
“It introduces tighter rules for venues on council owned or managed land, including mandatory annual community value statements, requirements for venues with Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs) to pay full market rent in new or renewed leases, stronger expectations around accountability and transparency.
“The draft also formalises prohibitions on gambling advertising in council facilities and provides clearer parameters around council events, grants and partnerships involving gambling venues.”
Other changes to the draft policy include stronger advocacy for a sinking cap, which aims to reduce the number of EGMs across the municipality.
However, not all councillors were convinced the draft policy went hard enough to minimise the impacts of gambling harm.
Cr Naim Kurt was one councillor who was on the fence on the draft policy, and voted against endorsing it in its current form.
“One of the things I was quite insistent upon which hasn’t made it into the draft report at this point was that I believe if you operate on council land and you’ve got adjoining sports clubs operating in that precinct, some of that money should be returned to infrastructure investment in those clubs,” he said.
Cr Kurt also pointed out in the council report the disproportionate losses across Hume.
“Of the five venues that operate across EGMs across Hume between 2008 and 2025, it accounted for $331 million of losses to our community. That’s 18 per cent of the $1.8 billion in total EGM losses across the municipality during that period,” he said.
According to the state government, Hume is ranked third highest in EGM expenditure in Victoria.
Council said in 2024/25, Hume residents lost $147.9 million to EGMs, marking the highest annual loss on record.
The hardest hit area was the south of Hume including suburbs like Gladstone Park, which recorded losses of $89.3 million, compared to Hume’s northern suburbs like Craigieburn and west, including Sunbury which saw losses in the same period of $34.7 million and $23.9 million respectively.
Have your say on the draft policy now until 15 February.
Details: https://participate.hume.vic.gov.au/gambling-in-hume
