Exclusion compliance for gambling providers

Under liquor and gaming legislation, all gambling providers (except lotteries, bingo, charities and not-for-profits) must take reasonable steps to prevent excluded patrons from entering or remaining in licensed premises or gaming machine areas.

Ensure your staff are trained in how to recognise and respond to the signs of gambling-related harm and how to provide patrons advice about, and assistance with, exclusion.

To understand what you must do:

• read Guideline 16—Preventing excluded persons entering or remaining on licensed premises
• read the resource manual for your respective industry
• read the code of practice
• familiarise yourself with venue-initiated exclusion and self-exclusion forms and reporting tools.

Tips for helping patrons comply with exclusions

• Don't send excluded patrons any promotional or advertising material about the venue (fines may apply). Remove them from your mailing lists and social media accounts.
• Ensure card-based gaming and player loyalty accounts are disabled (partially or fully) or cancelled when an exclusion takes effect. Make sure the patron doesn't reactivate their card or open a new account during their exclusion period.
• Ensure staff have seen photos of excluded patrons and scan CCTV for them (consider using facial recognition technology).
• Ensure staff don't pay out jackpots or cancelled credit to excluded patrons (ensure form 30—payout refusal report is completed and lodged with the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation (OLGR) as soon as possible).
• If an excluded person is identified in your venue, escort them from the venue in an orderly and sensitive way and offer to help them get in touch with a gambling help service.

What to do if a patron breaches an exclusion

You're required by law to take reasonable steps to prevent excluded patrons accessing exclusion areas and remove patrons who breach exclusions. Your venue must have policies and procedures supporting this requirement.

You (and the excluded patron) need to ensure a contravention of an exclusion order or direction doesn't happen. OLGR may investigate contraventions and examine the contributing factors.

You're also required by law to report to OLGR within 7 days any patron who breaches their exclusion. To do this, complete and submit the Notice of contravention of self-exclusion order/exclusion direction form (form 3H).

Gambling providers (except casinos) who haven’t identified the excluded patron within 30 minutes must also submit a Managing gambling exclusions checklist (attached to form 3H) to OLGR, unless you've already submitted it in the last 12 months.

You can lodge the notice of contravention form:

• by email to gamingcompliance@justice.qld.gov.au
• in person at an OLGR office
• by post to
  • Gaming Compliance
    Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation
    Locked Bag 180
    CITY EAST  QLD  4002.

How to meet your reporting requirements

Gambling providers must keep up-to-date registers of their excluded patrons as well as regularly report on excluded patrons to OLGR. To meet these reporting requirements:

• complete form 3G—register of excluded persons, keep it onsite and make it available for inspection by an OLGR officer
• report to OLGR using form 3R—report on excluded persons, every 6 months (within 14 days of the end of June and December each year).

Also consider...

• Download compliance signage and other materials for gambling providers.
• Learn about processing remote gambling exclusions.
• Read more about compliance for gaming machine licensees.