ACT Greens minister Shane Rattenbury has welcomed a proposal to restrict the sale of lottery tickets at petrol stations in Canberra and raised concerns about the viability of small business.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The ACT government introduced restrictions last month so scratchies could be bought only between 5am and 9pm, on the recommendation of the Gambling and Racing Commission.
The restriction was prompted by a surprise deal struck between NSW Lotteries and Woolworths petrol stations last month, allowing lottery products to be sold in five petrol stations in the ACT.
Last week, the ACT opposition called for the sale of lottery products to be restricted to businesses with fewer than 35 full-time employees to ensure newsagents remained competitive.
Mr Rattenbury said he supported Minister for Gaming Joy Burch's decision to restrict the sale of lotto products and would consider legislation further restricting sales.
"I'm really concerned about the impact of selling lotto tickets in service stations and the impact that will have on newsagents from a small-business point of view, as well as simply making gambling products available all of the time," he said.
"The intent of wanting to protect the newsagencies to an extent and to make sure we limit the number of places where they are sold at is right, it is about sorting through the details and perhaps unforeseen implications," he said.
The Woolworths-NSW Lotteries deal has angered anti-gambling groups and newsagency owners throughout the capital who feared the shift would cut into sales and jeopardise their businesses.
In February the NSW government struck a deal with Tatts that banned the sale of lottery products in Coles and Woolworths supermarkets for the next five years.
The memorandum of understanding meant newsagents and convenience stores in NSW would have exclusive selling rights to lottery products until 2018.
That deal didn't include service stations owned by the two supermarket giants or other retailers, which would be allowed to sell the products from April this year.
Ms Burch said she was concerned about the prospect of lottery tickets being available for purchase 24 hours a day in petrol stations in the ACT, with newsagents keeping more-regular hours.
"I believe the community would consider this to be inappropriate, as no other gambling product in the ACT is available through retail shops at all hours of the night," she said.
"While lottery products are lower risk than other gambling products, they are not 'no risk'.
"It was on this basis that the Gambling and Racing Commission recommended to me that a restriction on the hours they could be sold was appropriate."
Opposition small-business spokesman Andrew Wall will table in the Legislative Assembly next week a draft bill modelled on similar legislation in Queensland that would ensure newsagency lottery sales were never overtaken by big supermarket chains.
"It means in the large part that lottery tickets will only be sold by small businesses, not by large multinational companies that are more concerned by the bottom line," he said.
