One of the key elements of our Future Gaming Market reforms was to end the monopoly and to allocate the contract for the Licensed Monitoring Operator for the hotel and club Electronic Gaming Machine (EGM) network through a competitive open market tender.
The tender was released on 25 March this year, and was a multifaceted tender process which required expert input, and contract negotiations with a set of complex and interrelated agreements and licences to be agreed.
I am pleased to announce that, following this comprehensive, competitive tender process, Maxgaming Holdings Pty Ltd has been awarded the exclusive Tasmanian Monitoring Operator Licence to provide and operate an Electronic Monitoring System and services to monitor all EGMs in hotels and licensed clubs in Tasmania.
As part of its tender bid, Maxgaming will pay the Tasmanian Government an upfront Licence Fee of $2 million for the benefit of the Tasmanian community and will also provide an additional $1 million grant over the term of the licence to be paid into the Community Support Fund.
Maxgaming is a highly experienced and qualified provider of EGM monitoring services, currently operating in New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory. Maxgaming monitors over 135,000 machines across its network, including more than 30,000 gaming machines in Queensland (as the primary monitoring operator in a competitive market) and all machines in New South Wales and the Northern Territory as the exclusive monitoring operator.
The monitoring services to be provided by Maxgaming will include integrity management, electronic data collection, facilitation of linked jackpot arrangements, financial data collection and reporting, installation, maintenance and repair of gaming machines.
The Licence that will be awarded to Maxgaming is for a 20-year period commencing 1 July 2023, in line with the timing for individual hotels and clubs to become individually licensed and responsible for gaming operations in their venues.
Maxgaming will now commence preparatory work in consultation with venues to be ready for the official transition to the new monitoring system from 1 July 2023.
The awarding of the Monitoring Operator Licence represents a major step in the implementation of the Government’s gaming market reforms, and I congratulate Maxgaming on their successful bid.
The Tasmanian Government looks forward to working with Maxgaming and the Tasmanian industry to ensure the ongoing integrity of gaming in Tasmanian hotels and clubs.