Casino lets punters get the drop on addiction

AUSTRALIA'S Crown Casino has become the world's first to allow gamblers to set their own daily loss limits.

From today, poker-machine players can determine how much time and money they are willing to spend in a 24-hour period.

Punters who reach self-imposed limits will be warned by continual beeps and flashing screen messages – and denied Crown Club loyalty rewards.

Repeat offenders will be referred to the casino's in-house problem gambling support centre.

The Play Safe program – which does not extend to casino gaming tables – was developed in partnership with welfare groups.

"Anything we can do to make it easy for people to stop gambling more than they can afford to lose has got to be encouraged," Salvation Army spokesman John Dalziel said.

He was consulted about the program. "Crown is all about gambling; that's where they make their profits. But we should applaud a program that recognises it's in no one's interest to have people who are problem gamblers."

Other community groups involved in forming the program included Open Family and Gambler's Help.

From January onwards, the state's 534 suburban pokies parlours, operated by gaming giants Tattersall's and Tabcorp, will be required to introduce a similar loss-limit program for all loyalty-scheme members.

These, which confer an array of bonuses and discounts on pokie players, require players to swipe identification cards and accumulate reward points for every dollar spent.

At Crown, which has a membership base of more than a million, patrons can earn points for meals, drinks and cheap hotel and parking rates.

New Bracks State Government laws also require Victorian pokies venues, including Crown, to provide annual player activity statements detailing monthly wins and losses.

Casino spokesman Gary O'Neill said more than 200,000 regular casino punters had been briefed on the initiative already.

"No other casino in the world has had the ticker to do this . . . it's a very big step forward," Mr O'Neill said.

"We thought of this more than 18 months ago to help our customers visiting the support centre – long before the Bracks Government adopted it."

He said gamblers would be encouraged to set their loss limits by visiting staff at six Crown Club booths throughout the casino complex.

Players wanting to change their expenditure rate must wait 24 hours before the new limits became active, he said.

Crown chief executive Rowen Craigie said the scheme had attracted interest from casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City in the US; and in Canada, New Zealand and other Australian states.

"This establishes Crown as one of the world leaders in tackling problem gambling," Mr Craigie said.

In March last year, Crown became the first casino in the world to offer patrons around-the-clock gambling counselling.

Since its first day, the centre has had more than 17,000 calls and counselled about 5000 problem gamblers.

Another 300 gambling addicts have signed a deed of self-exclusion, taking the total number of banned patrons to 1000.