A package of legislative measures aimed at curbing the political influence of poker-machine clubs and pubs in the state of New South Wales (NSW) by suspending such venues from making political donations is being officially introduced to the state parliament today.
If the proposed drafts receive local lawmakers’ approval, the electoral funding act would be altered in a way that would outlaw political donations made by local gambling venues, such as registered clubs and pubs offering controversial poker machines (also known as pokies), or entitled that are involved in any other form of gambling, betting or wagering activities.
By adopting such a measure, clubs that currently host pokies and offer the controversial services of electronic gambling terminals will be regarded as “prohibited donors”. They will be also considered similar to property developers, liquor or gambling industry companies, and tobacco businesses.
The Labor Government had pledged to suspend political donations prior to the March election, amid the ongoing campaign of the state’s powerful NSW pubs and cubs lobby that has already opposed proposed reforms that have been aimed at the implementation of further restrictions for poker machine gambling. That lobby has also opposed a promise of the Coalition to introduce mandatory cashless gambling in New South Wales.
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NSW Premier Chris Minns has shared that the proposed piece of legislation is focused on bringing local clubs in line with other gambling regulations across the country. According to him, the newly-unveiled measure is set to finally close a major political loophole and described the bill as a crucial integrity measure aimed at enhancing the control of the political donation system in New South Wales. Mr Minns confessed that the reform was long overdue but he remained hopeful that it would still get enough support from local lawmakers.
The state was on the verge of a major gambling reform at the time when the Coalition Government of Premier Dominic Perrottet was voted out of power in March 2023. Previously, he has unveiled a collaboration with various crossbenchers, including Alex Greenwich, an independent Member of Parliament, in a pledge to introduce so-called cashless gambling systems aimed at reducing money laundering and other criminal activities in local clubs and pubs, and to tackle rising gambling addiction rates and gambling-related harm inflicted on the residents of New South Wales.
Since then, the crossbench has expanded its efforts insisting on using the minority status of the Labour Party in both houses of the State Parliament to seek further action on money laundering and problem gambling after, at the time when the election took place, the proposed policy faced a massive wave of criticism for being too soft.
According to recent data that the Liquor and Gaming NSW released, the residents of the state lost AU$4.3 billion to poker machines in the second half of 2022. The figure exceeds the total losses recorded in the same period before the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak by AU$820 million. The overall net profits of the controversial electronic gaming machine terminals rose by 11% to AU$4.26 billion, a future that is 24% higher than the AU$3.44-billion net profits recorded in the last six months of 2019, right before the coronavirus outbreak.
- Author
Daniel Williams
