Australia moving into new era of gambling protection for casinos

A new USB memory stick will be the key to ensuring that gamblers do not go over their spending limits. Upon playing at a poker machine, gamblers will have to set limits for how much they can lose. Then, the gamblers fingerprints will be used to stop the gamblers from exceeding those limits.

This is the first step of what the government believes will be an extensive effort to slow problem gambling. This step is crucial to stop gamblers from binge betting, where they lose their limit and then keep playing the machines to try and recover their losses. By using the fingerprint technology, the gambler would be unable to continue gambling once they reach their limit.

Gamblers will have the ability to change the spending limit on the key they insert into a machine, but it will not happen instantaneously. The provisions are not yet set, but a period of one day to one month is being proposed to give the gambler time to come down from the losses before changing the limits.

One of the reasons that casinos are successful is impulse gambling. A gambler brings a certain amount of money to a casino, and when they lose, they run to an ATM to get more cash. They then continue the routine, until some players have cleaned out their bank accounts. Many government's have created laws keeping ATM machines out of casinos.

Privacy is a concern for gamblers with the new fingerprinting system. Lawmakers, however, have assured gamblers that their fingerprints are not stored. Once they leave the machine, the fingerprints are eliminated, never having to be linked to a database.

Senator Nick Xenophon has been the driving force behind gambling reform in Australia. Xenophon struck a deal with the current leaders in government ensuring that the problem gambling issue would be dealt with in the coming months.