The Government of New South Wales (NSW) has been even more eagerly called to discard its “unnecessary” cashless gambling card trial and take stricter action on the planned poker machine reform, especially after the state of Victoria recently announced massive changes aimed at fighting illegal money laundering and tackling gambling-related harm.
According to Tim Costello, a long-time anti-gambling campaigner, the changes in Victoria have now put the focus on the NSW Labour Party, which has so far refused to introduce sweeping changes unveiled by the previous Government of Premier Perrotet that aimed at making all pokies across the state cashless by December 2028. Mr Costello has gone further, accusing the NSW Government of intentionally protecting the local gambling sector, and called for Premier Chris Minns to follow suit and implement stricter measures in order to guarantee better customer protection.
As Casino Guardian reported, as a result of the latest regulatory changes, gamblers in the state of Victoria will be forced to set limits on their daily losses on controversial poker machines, which will also feature slower spin times, lowering them from the current 2.1 seconds per game to 3 seconds. The gaming and gambling venues across the state will be also obliged to close for no less than six hours a day, from 4:00 AM to 10:00 AM. The latest regulatory changes are expected to be implemented by the end of 2023, providing the state of Victoria with the strictest gambling and anti-money laundering measures in the territory of Australia.
The surprising poker machine overhaul that was officially announced by Victorian Premier Dan Andrews only a couple of days ago, will leave New South Wales with weaker anti-money laundering protection and gambling-related harm minimisation policy than Victoria, which has triggered some warnings that could lead to more criminal activity north of the border.
Sweeping Changes Needed to Tackle the NSW Poker Machine Sector, Campaigners Say
In 2022, an investigation into money laundering via poker machines, which was carried out by the NSW Crime Commission, found that billions of dollars of annual turnover generated by controversial electronic gaming machines (EGMs) could probably be categorised as proceeds of criminal activity. Based on the results of its investigation and the vast amounts of money spend on clubs’ and pubs’ pokies, the Crime Commission concluded that New South Wales was the “gambling capital of Australia”. At the time, the regulatory body recommended the introduction of cashless gambling cards across the sector in order to make sure local gamblers are better protected against potential gambling harm.
Despite all the warnings along the way, the new Labour Government has not adopted Premier Perrottet’s cashless gambling card scheme. Instead, it made a promise to conduct a 12-month trial of cashless gambling cards involving only 500 pokies across the state. Since the official announcement, the NSW Government has revealed that the actual number of poker machines involved in the trial may be bigger.
The planned cashless gaming card trial is set to be monitored by an expert panel, that is supposed to determine whether local lawmakers should roll out cashless gambling across the state. The trial, however, has not started yet.
According to Mr Costello, Premier Minns should abandon the “unnecessary” trial of the cashless gambling card and should commit to the statewide implementation of stricter regulation, such as a mandatory, pre-commitment cashless card. he also warned that the NSW Government could drive more illegal money laundering activity into the state from neighbouring Victoria should it fail to match the Victorian gambling reforms.
Reportedly, there were over 86,000 registered poker machines in New South Wales in 2022, which was about 30% more than the number of pokies in the states of Victoria and Queensland combined. Research has shown that the largest pokie losses per person in Sydney have been concentrated mostly in lower-income areas in the south-western suburbs of the city. According to official figures unveiled by the NSW Liquor and Gaming NSW, the profits generated by pokies in NSW clubs and pubs reached AU$8.1 billion in 2022 – a considerable increase from the AU$6.61-billion pokie profits registered in 2019, the last year that was unaffected by the lockdowns and closures associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Author
Daniel Williams
