Problem gambling was a threat to the nation's social cohesion, the said. A spokesman for the Premier, Morris Iemma, said: "NSW already has strict regulations in place to ensure that gaming venues place ATMs well away from gaming machines."
But Mr Iemma's Government yesterday refused to rule out lifting a cap of 30 poker machines in pubs. Industry sources said the Government was considering allowing pubs to add at least 10 machines. It is believed there are 3000 ATMs inside or close to gambling venues in Australia.
Mr Costello told Parliament problem gamblers accounted for a third of the revenue generated by poker machines and the easy access to money needed to be curbed to help tackle the issue.
"The ATM represents a real temptation for a problem gambler who may have come with a fixed sum of money, gone through it, and now finds it easy to go to the ATM to continue their addiction. We would ask all of the states to co-operate with the Commonwealth in its active program to deal with this scourge, an area where the Commonwealth has taken leadership even though it has no legislative power."
Mr Costello, who launched the Productivity Commission inquiry into gambling in 1999 that revealed Australia had 130,000 problem gamblers and a further 160,000 at risk, said Australia had "roughly five times as many gaming machines" per capita as the US. Mr Costello said people losing money tended to be on low incomes. Moving ATMs was a key way to tackle the social problems caused by gambling. He also appealed to the Iemma Government to dump the plan to introduce the lottery game Keno to pubs.
"There is no reason for any state government whatsoever to believe that the introduction of Keno or other forms of interactive gambling could actually add to the social cohesion in our country," he said.
| 
