lusted.peter@abc.net.au<\/a>![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785370153_631_b3c35081fd0361fa98d67fca3a9bf44f.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nThe Hellenic Club was cleared of breaching gaming regulations for not recording the Kasurinens problem gaming incidents. (Supplied: Hellenic Club)<\/p>\n
Gambling laws ‘vague and uncertain’: ACAT<\/p>\n
ACAT cleared the Hellenic Club of breaching gaming regulations for not recording the Kasurinens’ problem gaming incidents.<\/p>\n
The relevant clause in the ACT’s gambling code of practice says that a club must enter such incidents into a register within three days of “becoming aware of” a problem gambling incident.<\/p>\n
But the club was cleared of a breach, as none of the current or former employees “said that they were aware of any signs of problem gambling” in regard to the Kasurinens.<\/p>\n
ACAT said its decision on the issue had “arisen from vague and uncertain laws”.<\/p>\n
“The regulatory framework does not define what are signs of having a gambling problem, nor does it define behaviours which, seen in context, may amount to signs of having a gambling problem,” the ACAT judgment said.<\/p>\n
It also raised questions about whether staff were adequately trained to identify problem gambling behaviour.<\/p>\n
The ACT’s gambling code of practice requires all club staff to have a Responsible Conduct of Gambling (RCG) certificate.<\/p>\n
To get that, they must complete a training program which includes learning a 32-item gambling behaviour checklist.<\/p>\n
However, ACAT said the checklist did not contain any of the behaviours set out in the code’s clause that defined problem gambling.<\/p>\n
‘Significant reform’ coming to ACT gaming industry<\/p>\n
ACT Minister for Gaming Reform Marisa Paterson said the Kasurinens’ experience exemplified the impact of gambling harm in the community.<\/p>\n
“What they’ve gone through over the past few years has just been horrendous,” she said.<\/p>\n
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ACT Gaming Reform Minister Marisa Paterson says the gambling industry will undergo major reforms in the coming months. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)<\/p>\n
Ms Paterson said in the coming months, the industry in the ACT would be subjected to a “significant reform agenda”, to reduce gambling harms.<\/p>\n
“The reforms that we will bring to the Assembly will require a whole revision of the code of practice; it will be an entirely new structure of legislation and requirements on clubs.<\/p>\n
“There will need to be significant training to see these laws implemented in full.”<\/p>\n
ACAT still needs to hand down fines to the Hellenic Club, so Ms Paterson declined to comment on the specifics of the case until it was completed.<\/p>\n
However, she did describe it as a “test case decision.”<\/p>\n
“It absolutely will be something that the government is very committed to looking at, the outcomes of this decision once this case is finalised,” she said.<\/p>\n
Ms Paterson said analysis of problem gambling incidents reported at Canberra clubs showed the majority of incidents reported in the ACT were people making multiple cash withdrawals, to get around the $200 withdrawal limit.<\/p>\n
She indicated that could be addressed in the government’s changes.<\/p>\n
“Currently in the territory EFTPOS withdrawals are allowed, and one of our commitments at the last election was to see a ban on EFTPOS withdrawals and ATM withdrawals because we know that they are significantly contributing to the harm,” Ms Paterson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Canberra woman whose husband died by suicide amid mounting gambling debts, says the Hellenic Club taught them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[330800,336704,336703,97,336700,336702,336705,259,260,336701,336706],"class_list":["post-792301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-act-civil-and-administrative-tribunal","tag-gambling-code-of-practice","tag-gambling-regulations","tag-health","tag-hellenic-club","tag-marisa-paterson","tag-marlene-kasurinen","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-problem-gamblers","tag-ray-kasurinen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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