Game Approval Guidelines Consultation
In South Australia, the Liquor and Gambling Commissioner must approve all
electronic gaming machine games before they can be played. As part of that
approval process, the Commissioner must be satisfied that the approval of a
particular game will not result in an exacerbation of problem gambling—the
“exacerbation test”.
While the Commissioner is the primary decision maker, the relevant
legislation provides for the Independent Gambling Authority to provide
assistance to the Commissioner’s deliberative process by the issuing of the
guidelines. Following the introduction of the exacerbation test in 2001, the
Authority first gave interim guidance and then, in 2003, formally issued
guidelines after undertaking written consultation with manufacturers and other
industry and Concern Sector stakeholders.
The guidelines were given systematic consideration as part of the Authority’s
Review 2006 inquiry, which involved stakeholder input about a wide range of
regulatory functions relating to responsibility in gambling (ie. codes of
practice, the game approval guidelines, and gaming machine licensing
guidelines).
In the Review 2006 report, the Authority noted that the stakeholder response
on the game approval guidelines was not particularly well developed. As a
result, with regard to the guidelines, the Authority gave in principle
indications in relation to a number of issues raised, and held over other issues
for more detailed consideration at a later date.
The present consultation is to enable the Authority to receive information
and submissions on the matters held over, and also generally about gaming
machine game design and gaming machine structural characteristics.
A Guide for participation in the consultation is available
here.
Sections 2.2 and 3.5 of the Guide for participation refers to a commissioned
research report—The Relevance and Role of Gaming Machine Games and Game Features
on the Player of Problem Gamblers. The report is available
here.
A public hearing, at which stakeholders made make presentations, was held on
Tuesday 29 April 2008. The hearing included a presentation of the games and game
features research, and other appropriate preliminary evidence about the nature
of gaming machine games and their structural characteristics. The Authority is
currently considering information presented during the hearing.
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