The L&GNSW Research & Evaluation team undertake, commission and support fit-for-purpose research and evaluation that informs liquor and gaming policy and decision-making and regulatory action in NSW. The team sits within the Policy & Research directorate in the Hospitality & Racing division of the Department of Enterprise, Investment & Trade.
For further information, please contact Liquor & Gaming NSW.
Year: 2023Report type: EvaluationCategory: Liquor
Link: Review of Alcohol Delivery Reforms Stage 2 - Statutory Report PDF, 345.66 KB
In November 2020, the NSW Government introduced reforms which aimed to address the heightened risk of minors and intoxicated people accessing alcohol through delivery services.
L&GNSW reviewed the operation of the reforms over two stages. Stage 2 was finalised and tabled in Parliament in December 2023. Some key findings from Stage 2 were:
Link: Review of Alcohol Delivery Reforms Stage 1 – Supplementary Report PDF, 220.42 KB
In November 2020, the NSW Government introduced reforms which aimed to address the heightened risk of minors and intoxicated people accessing alcohol through delivery services. L&GNSW reviewed the operation of the reforms over two stages.
Some key findings from Stage 1 of the review were:
Year: 2022Report type: EvaluationCategory: Gambling
Link: Evaluation of the 2018 Gaming Machine Reforms PDF, 1158.17 KB
Various gaming machine reforms commenced on 3 April 2018 as part of the Gaming Machines Amendment (Leasing and Assessment) Act 2018. These legislative amendments implemented recommendations from the 2017 Local Impact Assessment (LIA) Review and introduced the Gaming Machine Entitlement (GME) leasing scheme.
As part of the reforms, the GME leasing scheme was introduced to support small venues that may be struggling financially, to improve their ongoing financial viability. The scheme allows small clubs and hotels to lease, rather than sell, their GMEs to other clubs and hotels respectively. Forfeiture requirements do not apply to leased GMEs and lessees are required to pay a levy to the RGF. The levy is either 5% of the lease price or $1,000 for each year the lease is in place - whichever is greater.
Changes were also made to the LIA process for venues seeking to increase their GMT including:
When the reforms were introduced, the Government committed to evaluating the changes to the LIA scheme and the introduction of the GME leasing scheme three years after their commencement.
The aim of the evaluation was to assess the extent to which the reforms have met their stated objectives. L&GNSW completed this evaluation after consulting with key industry, Government and community stakeholders and analysing a range of internal data sources.
Link: Newcastle Liquor Licensing Trial Stage 2 – Evaluation Report PDF, 3537.97 KB
The Newcastle liquor licensing trial aimed to support the re-invigoration of Newcastle’s night-time economy by relaxing certain liquor licence conditions for eligible venues.
Stage 2 of the trial commenced on 9 July 2021 and concluded on 17 October 2022. It involved relaxation of certain lock out conditions, liquor trading hours and drinks restrictions for participating hotels, general bars and public entertainment venues in Newcastle (including Honeysuckle), Newcastle East, Newcastle West, and Hamilton (including venues on the Hamilton boundary in Islington).
An evaluation of the trial was undertaken by Woolcott Research & Engagement.
Among participating venues during the trial period:
Venue specific data showed that compared to the 2019 financial year, the majority of venues (11 out of 20 which were operating in 2019) recorded no increase during the trial period.
Alcohol related offences occurring off premises but linked to a licensed venue showed no considerable increase during the trial period compared to the previous years.
Year: 2021 Report type: Evaluation Category: Liquor
Link: Evaluation of the trial relaxation of certain liquor licence restrictions for venues with a small bar or on-premises liquor licence in Newcastle
Stage 1 of the trial commenced on 1 October 2020 and concluded on 31 March 2021, and was available to venues with a small bar or on-premises liquor licence in the suburbs of Newcastle, Newcastle East, Newcastle West and Cooks Hill.
The trial involved the relaxation of conditions that allowed:
L&GNSW worked with City of Newcastle Council to evaluate the impacts of the trial.
Some of the key findings were:
Year: 2021Report type: Evaluation Category: Liquor
Link: Evaluation of the Tiered Industry Training Framework PDF, 908.14 KB
The purpose of the Tiered Industry Training Framework (TITF) is to reduce alcohol-related harm in NSW and improve responsible service of alcohol procedures by ensuring that liquor industry staff are trained at a level that is appropriate to their roles.
An evaluation of the TITF was undertaken by Liquor & Gaming (L&GNSW) and specifically focused on the uptake, efficiency and impact of training introduced under the framework. Stakeholders were consulted via a call for written submissions, training course participant surveys, and stakeholder interviews.
The key evaluation findings were:
The evaluation made 14 recommendations, including recommendations to improve:
Year: 2019 Report type: Evaluation Category: Liquor
Link: Evaluation of the Incident Register requirement PDF, 312.47 KB
The evaluation examined the requirement for some licensed venues to maintain an incident register. In response to the evaluation recommendations, a number of enhancements were made to the requirement to improve the value of incident registers for businesses and regulators.
The evaluation found incident registers:
Year: 2018 Report type: Evaluation Category: Liquor
Link: Evaluation of the Kings Cross alcohol sales data requirement PDF, 967.17 KB
L&GNSW evaluated the retail alcohol sales reporting requirements for licensed venues in the Kings Cross precinct. The evaluation was informed by interviews with key stakeholder organisations, written submissions, an online venue survey, and analysis of alcohol sales and venue compliance data.
The evaluation found that the requirement had make only a limited contribution to informing policy decisions by the NSW Government, had contributed little to shaping compliance efforts in Kings Cross, placed a significant cost and administrative burden upon both venues and Liquor & Gaming NSW, and resulted in uncertainty as to the quality of data provided by smaller, lower risk venues.
The key outcome from the report was that from 1 September 2018, the requirement for Kings Cross venues to provide retail alcohol sales data to L&GNSW was removed from the liquor laws.
Year: 2022Report type: ResearchCategory: Gambling
Link: A behavioural trial of voluntary opt-out pre-commitment for online wagering in Australia
The aim of this study was to build evidence and understanding of the impact of different features of pre-commitment deposit limits on the effectiveness of the measure, across different customer groups.
The study consisted of three key elements including a literature review of key insights on behavioural change, in particular as applied to gambling, a discrete choice experiment, and a randomised controlled trial.
The research found that only a minority of regular gamblers had deposit limits in place though most gamblers that had limits found them useful. Higher-risk gamblers are more likely to set limits, though many do not want to limit their gambling. Gamblers may not set limits as they are easier to circumvent and not all gamblers are aware they can set limits.
The limit type was the most influential message feature, followed (in order) by terminology and purpose, information to help set limits, message personalisation, message framing and message targeting. Receiving the optimal message had no significantly better effect on participants’ attitudes towards, intention to set, or actually setting of a deposit limit. Initiating a deposit or other type of limit during the four-week RCT period had a small but significant effect on decreasing the frequency of race betting, but no significant effect on sports betting frequency, betting expenditure or the experience of gambling harms.
The study was led by researchers at Central Queensland University and funded by Gambling Research Australia.
Link: Behavioural trial for consistent gambling messaging under the national consumer protection framework
The aim of the study was to examine the effectiveness of the categories of messages employed in safer gambling messaging, the purpose of gathering evidence on changes in the attitudes and behaviours of sports and race bettors as a result of exposure to safer gambling messages.
The research consisted of three elements including a literature review of key insights into gambling product messaging and related public health areas including tobacco, alcohol and junk food consumption, and two-stages of empirical research (quantitative and qualitative).
It was found that no identifiable message types were more, or less, effective than each other in facilitating positive behavioural change regarding amounts wagered and time spent gambling.
Year: 2021Report type: Research Category: Gambling
Link: The second national study of interactive gambling in Australia (2019-20)
The aim of this study was to update and expand upon a previous study in 2014 and evaluate how the interactive gambling environment has changed since that time.
The report used a multi-stage approach to examine interactive gambling. A literature review, environmental scan, national telephone survey, national online survey of gamblers, longitudinal cohort study, interviews with online gamblers, and a compilation of gambling help service data.
The primary study finding was that the estimated prevalence of interactive gambling has more than doubled in the past eight years to 17.5 per cent of the Australian adult population and is most popular amongst men aged 20-49 years. Nearly one-third of all gamblers are estimated to now engage in online gambling, with continued growth expected.
Year: 2019 Report type: Research Category: Gambling
Link: NSW Gambling Survey 2019
This report outlines the results of the NSW Gambling Survey 2019, conducted with adults aged 18 years and over living in NSW from November 2018 to February 2019. The NSW Gambling Survey 2019 was undertaken to understand gambling in NSW – who gambles, how gambling is changing, the extent of gambling harm in the community, and how different regions are affected. The research, which was conducted by Central Queensland University, was commissioned by the NSW Responsible Gambling Fund.
Link: Shutdown periods for electronic gaming machines
This report examines the harm-reduction impact of time-based access to electronic gaming machines (EGMs), from the perspective of current literature as well as EGM players. The study aims to further understand the benefits of shutdowns, and the optimum time of day to shut down EGMs to reduce gambling by at-risk and problem gamblers. The research, which was conducted by Snapcracker Research + Strategy, was commissioned by the NSW Responsible Gambling Fund.
Link: Literature review of the impact of EGM characteristics on gambling harm
This report examines literature concerning the design characteristics of electronic gaming machines (EGMs). The review focuses on the attitude and behaviours of gamblers with respect to different characteristics and identifies aspects of harm and responsible gambling associated with different characteristics. The research, which was conducted by Schottler Consulting, was commissioned by the NSW Responsible Gambling Fund.
Year: 2018 Report type: Research Category: Gambling
Link: The harm minimisation impact of third party exclusion schemes and possible future directions for NSW
This research examined the potential for a third-party exclusion scheme for pubs and clubs in NSW. This involves family, close friends and potentially even venues being able to exclude or ban a person from a venue or venues to protect family or other parties (including the gambler) being affected by the person’s gambling. The research, which was conducted by Schottler Consulting, was commissioned by the NSW Government.
Year: 2018 Report type: ResearchCategory: Gambling
Link: Research into the separation of ATMs and gaming machines in NSW
This research examined the potential for a minimum distance between cash devices (ATMs) and electronic gaming machines in NSW hotels and clubs to minimise the harm of problem gambling. The research, which was conducted by Schottler Consulting, was commissioned by the NSW Government.
Year: 2020Report type: Evaluation Category: Other
Link: Review of the operation of the Music Festivals Act 2019
The Music Festivals Act 2019 (“the Act”) commenced on 21 November 2019. It was introduced to ensure additional oversight of high-risk music festivals, and provide support to these festivals, to achieve the shared aim of safer events in NSW.
To inform the review, music festival organisers, roundtable member organisations, prescribed entities under section 10(5) of the Act, and selected medical and harm reduction service providers were consulted via telephone or online survey. The review was also informed by a range of health-related data provided by the NSW Ministry of Health; offence, compliance and operational data provided by the NSW Police Force and Liquor & Gaming NSW (L&GNSW); and data relating to Safety Management Plans (SMPs) provided by the Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority (ILGA).
While the review found little evidence that the requirements under the Act significantly impacted the revenue of high-risk music festivals, music festival operators did report that operating costs had increased since its introduction, primarily due to user-pays medical and policing expenses.
With regard to the effectiveness of SMPs, the review found it was too early to draw any definitive conclusions, though stakeholders generally reported that SMPs have strengthened accountability in the planning of health and safety arrangements for music festivals.
Year: 2018Report type: Evaluation Category: Other
Link: Evaluation of the Club Industry Training Framework PDF, 449.77 KB
The evaluation considered whether improvements to the Club Industry Training Framework are needed and recommended a series of measures to support the ongoing viability of the club industry.
The evaluation interviewed a number of industry stakeholders and received survey responses from club directors and managers. Course materials and data on training completion were also examined.
The evaluation found that: