Andrew Barr rules out as many as 500 pokies in the casino

The long-awaited ruling on whether more poker machines will be allowed in the Canberra Casino is out. The final decision was made by ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr when he rules out the possibility of allowing more than 500 poker machines in the casino. However, the decisions if some poker machines will be permitted is yet to be made.

The current situation is poker machines are only allowed in the city’s clubs that have less than 5000 poker machines between them. A bid was recently placed by the owners of the Canberra casino that has made the government reconsider to give them have poker machines. This is because of the $330 million that the owners are planning to use to redevelop the casino and the areas that surround it. Besides, they are also planning to upgrade the convention center.

The casino had requested that they are allowed to have 500 poker machines, a request that the cabinet rejected. According to Mr. Barr, 500 poker machines is too high. However, the cabinet said that if they are allowed to put some poker machines, they will have to pay more taxes, make higher contributions to the community than clubs and put measures that will limit any harm.

Barr was pushed to disclose more information on what the government was thinking, but he did not give into the question which could have led to him releasing more information on what the government is thinking. The only thing that he said was that the government was still deliberating on the bid and that once a decision is reached the outcome will be made public after the owners of the casino.

One of the reasons the government is reconsidering the bid is that there is a possibility of job creation if given a go ahead.

In case the proposal is allowed to proceed to the next stage, Aquis will have to present a detailed business case.

The problem at the moment is that there is a fight by clubs to retain the exclusive access they have to poker machines as their businesses depend on it. Club owners argue that if casinos are allowed access to poker machines, they face the possibility of closing down their businesses.

The final decision depends on Green Shane Rattenbury. This is because they took a policy to the last election when they opposed the liberalization of poker machine rules and only supported their restriction to clubs that do not make a profit out of them. However, Mr. Rattenbury has asked his party to reconsider the position.

According to Rattenbury, it is better to have a smaller number of venues with poker machines compared to having them spread all over the suburbs that include family places such as clubs. A casino will allow willing buyers, something that gives them the opportunity to diversify from gambling. However, at the moment, it is not known what the Greens have decided. What is known is that the Greens have reservations about the bid.