Victoria’s gambling regulator has approved plans for a poker machine venue in Beaconsfield in Melbourne’s outer south-east, where children will be kept in a fully enclosed and soundproof playroom.

The room will be positioned so the children are in full-view of the venue’s poker machines, so parents can monitor their children from the gaming room. State Opposition spokesman Michael O’Brien says government policy is to blame for the approval, and the design must be changed.

“It is absolutely extraordinary the commission can allow a venue to startup which encourages parents to bring their kids and leave them in a soundproof room while they go off and play the pokies,” he said.

“This is John Brumby’s commission, applying John Brumby’s laws.” He says the plan is one step away from having a window onto the car park where children have been left in cars.

“We should be encouraging parents to properly supervise their children, and it is not proper supervision to say that it is okay to leave them in a soundproof room, as long as you can occasionally look in through a window,” he said.

Mr O’Brien says it is inappropriate for young children to be so close to poker machines. “There is a lot of research that shows that the earlier the children are exposed to gambling, the greater at risk they are of developing gambling problems themselves,” he said.

“This is actually being used as a marketing tool to encourage parents to expose their kids to gambling at an early age.”