A Gambling Incident Register is a record of reportable gambling incidents that occur at licensed premises with gaming machines. This fact sheet sets out the key components of keeping and maintaining a Gambling Incident Register.
From 1 July 2024, all hotels and registered clubs with Gaming Machine Entitlements or Permits will be required to keep a Gambling Incident Register and record all gambling incidents.
If your venue holds Gaming Machine Entitlements or Permits but does not operate any gaming machines at any time, you do not need to keep a Gambling Incident Register. This exemption ends whenever one or more gaming machines are operating at your venue.
Maintaining a gambling incident register will give you a better understanding of how gambling harm is affecting your patrons.
It will help you to understand trends at your venue over a long period of time. This information will help you to develop appropriate strategies to reduce gambling harm at your licensed premises.
You can either:
It is important to put procedures in place to ensure your incident register is always up to date.
You may delegate responsibility for updating the gambling incident register to staff at your venue. If you are required to have a Responsible Gambling Officer, making records in the register is one of their key duties.
Information recorded in a gambling incident register must be retained for at least three years.
Hotel licensees and registered clubs are responsible for ensuring the gambling incident register is maintained and that it is reviewed at least once a month. You may delegate this responsibility to managers or other key staff at your licensed premises. However, it is a legal obligation for the licensee or approved manager to maintain the incident register.
The person reviewing the incident register must consider whether there are any trends in gambling harm and strategies to reduce gambling harm.
Incidents that must be recorded:
The details of the above incidents must be recorded, including what action you have taken in response to the incident.
Records must be made as soon as practicable, but no longer than 24 hours, after the incident occurs.
You may choose to record other incidents in the gambling incident register, such as machine faults or complaints.
There are often warning signs that may suggest a patron is at risk of gambling harm, or they are experiencing gambling harm.
You must record any patron behaviour that is a warning sign of at-risk gambling behaviour, which is described in ‘Warning signs of at-risk gambling behaviour and how to act on them’. You may want to print this off and display it in your venue.
This table has been extracted from Appendix 3 of the Advanced Responsible Conduct of Gambling workbook so it reflects the content in ARCG training.
When reviewing the gambling incident register, you should look for repeated behaviour or warning signs of gambling harm in patrons over time. This will help you consider implementing different interventions for those patrons.
You can choose to keep your gambling incident register in:
New versions of the bound book and digital register were released in May 2024. You may continue to use old versions of the bound book and digital register until 31 December 2024.
From 1 January 2025 you must use the new versions of the bound book and digital register.
You may choose to keep your venue’s gambling and liquor incident registers together, provided that each gambling incident is clearly marked as such. If you plan to use the L&GNSW bound book, keeping your venue’s gambling and liquor incident registers separately may save time for your staff when they review the incident records or make it easier to locate closer to gaming machines.
When using the L&GNSW bound book to record a gambling incident, you must tick the ‘Gaming’ checkbox and fill in the relevant details about the incident. When recording the details, indicate what type of gambling incident it is, for example ‘at-risk gambling behaviour’, ‘self-exclusion request’, ‘family exclusion request’ or ‘gambling incident involving minor’.
Incident registers can be ordered by visiting the NSW Government's online shop. Discounts are available for bulk orders of 20 or more – Liquor & Gaming online shop.
Our inspectors or NSW Police can review gambling incident registers when they audit a licensed premises. They may ask to inspect or take copies of your gambling incident register.
It is an offence to not produce the gambling incident register when requested.
Yes.
However, if you keep the L&GNSW bound book, it may be easier for you to keep them separate so the gambling incident register can be located near gaming machines and reviewed.
Keeping separate liquor and gambling incident registers may also make it easier to conduct your monthly review of the gambling incident register.
You can use your current bound book until 31 December 2024.
From 1 January 2025 all venues must use the new incident register formats released by L&GNSW in May 2024.
Yes, provided it the form and manner of reporting is consistent with the requirements published on the L&GNSW website and in the guidelines. The current requirements for digital registers can be found here.
All staff with gaming responsibilities must record gambling incidents in the gambling incident register.
If your venue has a Responsible Gambling Officer, recording gambling incidents in the gambling incident register is one of their key duties.
Hotel licensees and registered clubs are responsible for ensuring the gambling incident register is maintained and that it is reviewed at least once a month. The review should be undertaken by a suitably senior manager or employee.
When using the L&G bound book to record a gambling incident, you must tick the ‘Gaming’ checkbox and fill in the relevant details about the incident. When recording the details, indicate what type of gambling incident it is, for example ‘at-risk gambling behaviour’, ‘self-exclusion request’, ‘family exclusion request’ or ‘gambling incident involving minor’.
If another staff member has witnessed the same incident and has already recorded it, the record does not need to be duplicated.
Gambling incidents must be recorded as soon as practicable, but no later than 24 hours after they happen.
T: 1300 024 720E: contact.us@liquorandgaming.nsw.gov.auW: www.liquorandgaming.nsw.gov.au
