The Gaming and Racing Commission, with Access Canberra, monitors licensee compliance with gaming laws in the ACT. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
An Auditor-General report has found the Gaming and Racing Commission (GRC) has not been monitoring poker machine licensee compliance with mandatory reporting requirements, despite having the data to do so.
It’s also described the GRC’s management of investigations into potential non-compliance with gaming laws as “poor”.
“The GRC has not analysed compliance obligations under gaming laws of licensees, or itself, and used this analysis to design effective controls to address these risks or document their acceptance,” Auditor-General Michael Harris noted in his report.
Gross revenue from Canberra pokies was $186.55 million in 2023-24. As of 1 April, 2025, 3569 gaming machines were operating across 42 licensed venues in the ACT.
The GRC implemented the ACT Gambling Exclusions Database in 2014 to facilitate recording and reporting of both gambling harm and gambling self-exclusion breaches.
Pokies licensees are required to report exclusion breaches and incidents of gambling harm within three days (under gaming law).
“The GRC, through Access Canberra [and the agency’s memorandum of understanding], does not monitor licensee compliance with mandatory reporting requirements, despite this data being available within the database,” the report noted.
The review of mandatory reporting data found:
- 2752 incidents were reported up to seven days late
- 423 incidents were reported up to 14 days late
- 109 incidents were up to 28 days late
- 109 incidents were more than 28 days late.
Some 179 incidents where the data of the event had been incorrectly entered after it was recorded in the database were also found.
The report did not note how many incidents (if any) were notified within three days.
The Auditor-General recommended the GRC formally establish and implement procedures to review the use of the database, including consideration of timeliness of reports and analysis of the data to help inform compliance activities.
The audit office also looked at three investigations by Access Canberra into alleged breaches of the Gambling and Racing Code of Practice.
The investigations involved: the payment of winnings to an excluded person in April 2022; the failure of a licensee to identify a person experiencing gambling harm after the person withdrew more than $4000 over three hours in May 2022; and the failure of a licensee to identify patrons experiencing gambling harm and to exclude them from gambling.
The audit found the GRC board had “poor processes” to oversee the investigations conducted by Access Canberra before April 2023.
“[The] investigations were not managed consistently and lacked formal oversight,” it noted.
“Access Canberra’s investigation policy requires an investigation plan and evidence matrix be prepared at the outset of the investigation to guide its conduct; both of these were evident in one investigation, while another only had an investigation plan and another only had an evidence matrix.
“Advice to the GRC board to support decisions for two investigations were comprehensive, but one investigation had evidence of inaccuracies in the support for the decision made.”
The Auditor-General recommended the GRC board take a “more active role” in oversight of investigations into potential non-compliance with gaming laws.
A Regulatory Activity Monitor was implemented in April 2023 by Access Canberra.
The audit also found neither the GRC board nor Access Canberra analysed data to understand trends of licensee behaviour that could inform regulatory activities.
“For example, there is no analysis of transactions by licensees over time to determine if there is an increasing risk of non-compliance with gaming laws,” the report noted.
“If a licensee makes substantial changes to its operations or fleet of gaming machines over time, it may suggest there is an opportunity for inspection activity to ensure compliance is maintained.”
The GRC’s transparency and accountability were also called out in the 191-page report.
It noted the GRC “significantly reduced” the scope of its accountability indicators in its 2023-24 annual report.
The indicators had been reduced to: that the Commission has a public statement of expectation; that regulatory activity was reported annually; and that a target of 90 per cent of the Canberra community found it easy to interact with the GRC.
“These measures provide no insight for the public into the GRC’s performance in encouraging licensee compliance with gaming laws,” the audit report noted.
The GRC board has indicated it is reviewing its accountability indicators for its Statement of Intent for 2025-26 (but hasn’t made any changes).
A further review of the indicators will be undertaken in 2026-27.
Overall, the Auditor-General report made 14 recommendations for the GRC and Access Canberra to undertake.
No comments from the agencies were provided for inclusion in the report.
