Short bill to allow Licensing Trust members to distribute proceeds from gaming machines

"The Gambling Amendment Bill has been designed to allow elected members of licensing trusts to be involved in decisions on the distribution of gaming machine proceeds to the community," Internal Affairs Minister George Hawkins said when introducing the Bill to Parliament today.

"The Gambling Act 2003 imposes a strict separation between those who run commercial premises at which gaming machines are operated and those who control the gaming machine proceeds from those venues. This separation of functions is designed to reduce the risk of conflicts of interest.

"The potential for conflicts of interest is considerably lower in the case of licensing trust members who are elected under the Sale of Liquor Act 1989 who are publicly accountable to their local community and cannot benefit personally from the licensing trust.

"To reflect this, the Bill amends the Gambling Act to exempt licensing trust members from provisions that require the separation of functions.

"The amendment also applies to elected community trustees where a licensing trust has been reconstituted as a community trust under the Sale of Liquor Act.

"Licensing trusts are not eligible to operate gaming machines under the Gambling Act but some gaming machine societies choose to operate gaming machines on licensing trust premises.

"Traditionally some gaming machine societies have allowed licensing trust members to be involved in decisions on the distribution of gaming machine proceeds and the operation of gaming machines," concluded Mr Hawkins.