Tisch Lindsay: Gambling Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Tisch Lindsay: Gambling Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:611;Page:8457] 
LINDSAY TISCH (NZ National—Piako) 
: 
 After about 3 years and maybe even longer we now have a bill— 
Dianne Yates 
: About 10 years. 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: There we go it is 10 years but in my time it is 4 years because we first started looking at a discussion document entitled  
Gaming Reform in New Zealand 
 that the department put out. A number of submissions were made at that time and then we moved through the genesis of this current bill which was initially called the Gaming Law Reform Bill. At that time the bill was looking at two parts of the industry: the licensing side of gaming and the regulatory side. That title disappeared somewhere during the select committee stage and we came up with the Responsible Gambling Bill—and for those who do not know it was 330 pages long. The bill will now be known as the Gambling Bill. 
What is really interesting is that on Thursday we had a Supplementary Order Paper that was 65 pages long. This bill should be called the “United Future Reform Bill” because the United Future party has done a deal with the Government to come up with 163 new clauses—and I did not count the changes in the schedules. Of members here today only the chairperson of the Government Administration Committee Dianne Yates who has just spoken and myself who sat on the committee right through know what happened during that time. This bill had no United Future members considering it because at that time there was only one United Future member. Yet the influence that United Future has had on this bill comes through in the form of the Supplementary Order Paper lodged on Thursday which significantly changes some of the content of this bill. 
 This bill is about winners and losers. I could call it the “Winners and Losers Bill” because there will be some winners. The winners for example will be the casinos because at this stage there will be no more casinos so those who are out there now and are well established will be the real winners. Another winner out of this legislation will be the racing industry. I do not decry the racing industry—the TAB and the racing clubs—having pokie machines. Good on them! 
Yet a sector of the community will be the losers and that is those involved in the gaming industry and the pokies and whatever because of the restrictions and compliance costs that will be put on them and the very prescriptive nature of this bill. So my title refers to those people as the losers in the bigger scheme of things. 
My colleague Judith Collins talked about the interactive aspect—Internet betting. We could refer to this because that has now been removed and the Lotteries Commission will be able to go out there— 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: Yes I am getting to the Internet part. We could call this bill “The Bill That Supports Internet Betting”. Reports that have been done suggest that by the year 2005 Internet betting will be worth about £7 billion. I have here some glossy magazines that have been sent out to me. One is called  
Fortune Gaming: Bringing Gaming on Line 
 and that is really what will happen. In fact we can sit in our lounges at home— 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: This is about Internet betting Mr Chairman. It is in the bill and that is why I have referred to it. This bill could be called “Opening Up Internet Betting” because there is a clause that relates to that. I can sit at home in my lounge and log on to 1000 different sites around the country. That is what I can do now so this bill needs to be renamed.