Australian Capital Territory

Gaming Machine (Social Impact Assessments) Guidelines 2004 (No 1)

Disallowable Instrument DI2004-30

made under the
Gaming Machine Act 1987, s 14AB (Guidelines about social impact assessments)

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Amendments made to the Gaming Machine Act 1987 (the Act) by the Gaming Machine Amendment Act 2004, provide that under Section 14 of the Act applications for gaming machine licences must be accompanied by a social impact assessment.  

In making a decision on an application for a gaming machine licence the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission (the Commission) must consider the social impact assessment that accompanies a gaming machine licence application.

The amendment to the Act formalises an existing general requirement that applicants for a new licence or additional gaming machines provide the Commission with information to enable the full impact of their application to be assessed.   

Section 14AB of the Act provides for the Minister to make guidelines about social impact assessments.  The purpose of the guidelines is to provide assistance or direction to applicants for gaming machine licences when completing a social impact assessment.  The guidelines are a disallowable instrument.

The guidelines outline:

•	the requirements that must be satisfied by a social impact assessment;

•	the matters to be assessed or addressed by a social impact assessment; and

•	the information to be given by a social impact assessment.

The requirement to comply with the guidelines is not expected to place an onerous burden on applicants in respect of obtaining information, as the data is readily available in a useable format from reputable sources such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics.  Any analysis required to fulfil the assessment requirements is similar to the analysis an organisation would undertake to determine the costs and benefits of any proposed capital expenditure in accordance with good business practice.  

In addition, it is possible that some applicants may be able to share data in preparing their social impact assessments, thereby allowing for some costs to be shared and therefore minimised at the individual applicant level.