What did the Productivity Commission actually say?

The agreement to implement mandatory pre-commitment uniform across all states and territories by 2014 is not what the productivity Commission recommended in its Inquiry into Gambling.

"Realistically, most  state and territory governments could not quickly implement a genuinely binding pre-commitment system... Full scale implementation and advanced interfaces with the gambler would also require all machines to have card readers (or other player identification devices) and software upgrades- a costly measure if required to be done quickly."

Accordingly, the Commission recommends a staged approach:

"In the next three years, partial pre-commitment should be introduced in jurisdictions with compatible monitoring systems, while ensuring that the systems underlying this are compatible with the later adoption of full pre-commitment... A trial of a full pre-commitment system with the design features described above should be conducted."

The Commission also recommends that pre-commitment be trialled to test its effectiveness and justify its implementation:

"The Australian Government should enter into negotiations with a state or territory government to sponsor a full-scale regional trial or trials of a full pre-commitment regime, with trialling to commence by 2013." 

Therefore, industry calls for a trial of pre-commitment are in line with the Productivity Commission's original recommendations.