Research and evaluation reports

This research investigated whether liquor outlet density is associated with domestic and non-domestic assault in New South Wales.

The study used data on domestic and non-domestic assaults from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research and liquor licensing data from L&GNSW. L&GNSW licensing data included hotels, clubs, small bars, bottle shops, and on-premise outlets in NSW, but excluded packaged liquor operations that are delivery only.

The study found that an increase in liquor outlet density was associated with a rise in overall, alcohol-related domestic and non-domestic assaults in NSW between 2015 and 2019.

However the report advises caution when interpreting findings due to certain methodological limitations. The research is a welcome addition to the existing evidence base which supports regulatory decision making.

This research was commissioned by L&GNSW and funded by the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority. The research was undertaken by the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research & Department of Public Health (La Trobe University), National Drug Research Institute (Curtin University) and the Centre of Research Excellence in Indigenous Health and Alcohol, Central Clinical School (The University of Sydney).

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:

• Stakeholders were broadly supportive of the reforms and thought that the policy objectives remained valid.
• Industry stakeholders felt that the same day alcohol reporting requirements were administratively burdensome, however, other stakeholders raised the potential benefit of the data from the reporting requirements.
• There were mixed views regarding alcohol delivery trading hours and whether a two hour pause between the time of order and delivery should be introduced.
• Commissioned research found that 8% of minors (12 – 17 year-olds) who had consumed alcohol without their parents’ knowledge in the last year, had used an alcohol delivery service.

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:

• Awareness of the respective age and identity verification requirements for same day alcohol deliveries and other liquor deliveries is mixed.
• Compliance with requirements has been impacted, with drivers not supported by employers.
• The point-of-sale (POS) verification extension was supported by industry due to the difficulties in implementation and the Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF) itself.
• There is not yet enough evidence that additional proof of age requirements are required for other liquor deliveries.
• The Responsible Supply of Alcohol Training (RSAT) course has been well received with some improvements required to content and processes.

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:

• Average weekly business turnover increased by 37%, compared to the baseline of September 2019
• Average estimated weekly patronage increased by 20% compared to the baseline of June 2021
• Average weekly staff hours increased by 1% compared to the baseline of September 2019.

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.

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 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:

• Small bars to trade until 2am
• On-premises restaurant licences to trade until midnight from Monday to Saturday, and 10pm on Sundays.
• Venues to serve higher strength drinks after 10pm.

L&GNSW worked with City of Newcastle Council to evaluate the impacts of the trial.

Some of the key findings were:

• Participating venues benefitted from the trial through increased patronage, business turnover and an overall increase in employee hours. Overall, these benefits were greater for small bars than for restaurants and cafes.
• Local residents were generally supportive of the trial, and a majority reported they had not experienced any negative impact in their neighbourhood after 10pm.
• There was no evidence of an increase in alcohol-related violence.

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:

• Most stakeholders were supportive of the training framework and believed it contributed to improvements in the skills and knowledge of liquor industry workers and the management and operation of licensed venues
• While most liquor industry workers that are required to complete the training have done so, significant areas of non-compliance were identified
• The cost and time involved in completing training were identified by some liquor industry workers as barriers to compliance with the requirements
• Most stakeholders, including training participants, were satisfied with the content, quality and structure of the training courses, however some stakeholders suggested that content could be better customised to meet the needs of different business types.

The evaluation made 14 recommendations, including recommendations to improve:

• Compliance with the training requirements through behavioural insights and better data collection
• Information on accredited training providers and the cost of training
• Access to training for industry workers in regional areas
• Training content and processes for updating content.

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:

• Are generally meeting their policy objectives in helping venue operators gain a better understanding of circumstances that affect venue and patron safety, and implement strategies to reduce risks and improve safety.
• Are also assisting NSW Police and L&GNSW with investigations and other compliance activities.

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.

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 $1000 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:

• longer community consultation timeframes
• increased notification requirements to help facilitate consultation
• a requirement to submit a Local Impact Statement for GMT increase applications exempt from completing a LIA
• a requirement for venues to make a ‘community benefit payment’ to the RGF.

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.

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% 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.

The study was led by researchers at Central Queensland University and funded by Gambling Research Australia.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

• Most stakeholders recognised the significance of the training and supported the training requirements
• Club directors and managers that completed the training reported a high level of satisfaction with the training courses.
• Stakeholders identified cost and availability as barriers to participating in the training, particularly for small clubs in regional areas.