Australian state seeks public feedback on facial recognition use for gambling exclusion

The Australian state of New South Wales has opened up public consultation on new gambling reforms.

The New South Wales government is seeking feedback from the general public on consultation papers for a proposed third-party exclusion scheme and mandatory face biometric technology that will be used to support a statewide exclusion register for hotels and clubs with gaming machines within the state.

In a statement, the NSW government said the face biometric technology will “support gambling harm-minimisation” by eliminating “guesswork” involved in identifying those individuals who had been excluded from such venues. Released by the minister for gaming and racing, it added that currently venue staff had difficulty memorizing images of excluded patrons.

The proposed third-party exclusion scheme would allow relatives, friends or venues to apply for the exclusion of an individual experiencing significant gambling harm. With this, the NSW government has developed a draft facial recognition Code of Practice that gives venues already operating the technology guidelines to support identification of excluded patrons.

Humans would still be required to verify the match made by the system, while the NSW government says it is building “strict parameters” into the reforms to protect people’s privacy and to ensure that venues can use the technology only for the purposes of identifying excluded patrons.

Minister for Gaming and Racing David Harris said, “This is a complex reform which is why we are seeking feedback on a range of issues.”

“Facial recognition will also be an important harm-minimisation tool by providing another way to identify excluded patrons in crowded venue environments, which can often be challenging for venue staff,” he continued.

There are estimates that more than a million Australians have experienced harm in the past year due to another person’s gambling.

The consultation period closes on March 14 and the consultation papers on third-party exclusion and facial recognition technology can be found on this page.

Article Topics

Australia  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  gambling  |  New South Wales (NSW)