The revelation today that the owner of the new Irish pub in the Glenorchy CBD has applied to operate poker machines in the venue is devastating news for the local community. The City already suffers the highest pokies losses of anywhere in the State and to shove more machines into the community would be harmful and selfish in the extreme. Indeed, Glenorchy punters are already losing close to $2m a month on the pokies, almost half of which is known to be gouged from gambling addicts.

'The impact of gambling has a devastating effect on people and their families,' Ms White said at a Hobart community centre on Wednesday. 'Last financial year, Tasmanians lost $110 million on poker.

It’s now up to the Tasmanian Liquor and Gaming Commission to assess the application and the community only has two weeks to respond. And therein lies another problem because Tasmania’s ridiculous poker machine venue licencing arrangement do not include any provision for social impact assessment.

This is a real test for Premier Will Hodgman. He can either speak up and intervene, thereby showing an understanding of the scourge of poker machines and of the need to finally start reigning them in. Or he can do nothing which would prove yet again that Tasmanian governments don’t care about poker machine gambling addicts and instead are entirely beholden to the pokies industry.

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For my part I will continue to call out wrong-doing when I see it and encourage the Glenorchy community to make submissions to the regulator about this particular application.