By Andy Young
The maximum bet on the single spin of a poker machine in South Australia (SA) has been halved, from $10 to $5.
The SA Government has said that compliance with the new law is mandatory and venues that fail to set the new limit will have their operations shut down until the compliance is met. While Government officials have said that they are confident the massive majority of venues will comply with the new rules, it did say it anticipated around 500 machines would be switched off.
The Government announced the changes back in 2013 as part of its reforms to the Gaming Machines Act and while Communities Minister Zoe Bettison described gambling as a "popular Australian past-time", she said she hoped the new rules might help those with gambling problems.
“By reducing the maximum bet limit, we hope to reduce the amount problem gamblers can lose while they are gambling,” she said.
The new rules are now in place and all venues throughout SA need to make sure they have a $5 single-spin maximum bet in place for each of their machines.