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ABC News
12-06-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
NSW failing to reduce gambling harm from pokies, auditor-general's report shows
A leading charity has described the system governing poker machines in New South Wales as "broken" in the wake of a damning auditor-general's report into the effectiveness of gaming machine regulations. NSW Auditor-General Bola Oyetunji has tabled a performance audit into the regulation of gaming machines at state parliament. The report revealed state agencies Liquor and Gaming NSW and the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) had failed to focus its gaming strategy on harm minimisation. It went on to say: "The Department has developed a regulatory strategy that sets out its priorities clearly and has communicated this to stakeholders. "However, the strategy does not have a sufficient focus on the areas that are considered high-risk for gambling harm and does not set any targets for reducing harm associated with gaming machines. "Gaming machine losses and the social costs of gambling harm continue to be disproportionately concentrated in socio-economically disadvantaged communities." Wesley Mission chief executive officer Reverend Stu Cameron said the audit's findings were of no surprise. "While we did not need an audit to know the system is broken, as frontline services have been saying this for years, now it is in black and white," Reverend Cameron said. The audit's findings include: The audit report also found the state had significantly more poker machines than all other Australian jurisdictions combined, despite legislative provisions that aim to reduce the number of machines. The audit report said there were only 12 gambling inspectors and all were based in Sydney. "While most of the regular inspections are done in Greater Sydney, nine of the 10 suburbs with the highest number of people accessing GambleAware services in 2023-24 were located outside Greater Sydney," it stated. Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said people were promised action by Mr Minns when he came into power. "In Western Sydney, entire salaries are disappearing into poker machines, Premier Chris Minns and Gaming and Racing Minister David Harris are nowhere to be found," Mr Speakman said. He added that it went deeper than "stopping people from having a flutter". "The auditor-general's report showed harm is rising, inspections are not happening, and Labor has broken every promise it made," he said. Greens MP and spokesperson for gambling harm reduction Cate Faehrmann said the report showed regional areas, including Wollongong and Newcastle were not being given the proper attention. She said the government was failing in its regulatory duty to reduce harm. "They are tinkering around the edges rather than genuine measures to reduce gambling harm," he said. "Entire regions could go months or years without a single inspection." NSW Gaming and Racing Minister David Harris has welcomed the report, with the relevant agencies "accepting its recommendations", but blamed the previous Coalition government. "The report looked at the period 2019 to 2024, which was largely under the former Coalition government." He said reiterated the government's commitment to harm minimisation, saying it had already implemented a number of initiatives. Reverend Cameron said the audit showed a public health crisis. "If people were being harmed this badly by alcohol, drugs or unsafe roads, action would be swift. This is a public health crisis and it needs to be treated as such."
The Guardian
04-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
NSW gamblers losing $24m to poker machines every day, analysis shows
The New South Wales government has failed to prevent serious gambling harm with $2.7bn lost to poker machines in the first 90 days of this year, according to a charity group pushing for tougher regulation. Analysis of state government data by Wesley Mission has found the amount of money lost to poker machines during the first quarter of 2025 increased by 5.7% when compared with the same period in 2024. According to the analysis, NSW residents are now losing an average of $1m an hour to poker machines across the state, or more than $24m every day. Poker machines losses were the highest in Sydney's western suburbs. In the Canterbury-Bankstown area, more than $186m was lost to 4,924 poker machines in just 90 days, or an average of more than $2m a day. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email In just 90 days, more than $766m was lost to poker machines across seven local government areas in western Sydney: Fairfield, Cumberland, Blacktown, Parramatta, Penrith and Campbelltown and Canterbury-Bankstown. Wesley Mission, which sat on the NSW government's expert independent panel on gambling reform, has warned residents in Sydney's west are now losing an average of about $3,200 a year. The charity's chief executive, Stu Cameron, said the state government needed to urgently introduce tougher regulation of poker machines. 'The government has implemented limited reforms, but they clearly aren't having a material impact,' Cameron said. 'The losses continue to be massive, the poker machines keep multiplying and their devastating impact deepens every day. 'If the goal was to reduce gambling harm, then these reforms have failed. What we need now is courage – not more delays.' A spokesperson for the NSW minister for gaming and racing, David Harris, said the government was committed to 'evidence-based gaming reform' that would reduce harm and stop money laundering, while supporting local communities and jobs. 'Our gaming reforms are about changing people's behaviour which takes time,' Harris said. 'The government is reducing the overall number of gaming machines in NSW by reducing the gaming machine entitlement cap by over 3,000 since this Government was elected in 2023. 'Our government has also committed $100m to harm minimisation, introduced more responsible gambling officers, and have slashed cash limits on new machines.' Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Wesley Mission also called on the state government to also introduce mandatory shutdowns of poker machines from midnight to 10am, to introduce a cashless gaming card with enforceable harm reduction limits, and to set tighter caps on the number of machines in high-risk communities. 'These are not radical ideas – they are basic public health protections,' Cameron said. 'If people were being harmed this severely by alcohol, drugs, or unsafe roads, the government would act.' 'Gambling should be no different. Instead, the government does little while the industry rakes in billions.' Wesley Mission's analysis found the number of poker machines operating across the state had slightly increased when compared with the first quarter of 2024. The shadow minister for gaming, Kevin Anderson, said the government had 'promised a big game' on poker machines before the state election, but failed to deliver. 'The delays are just mind boggling and so frustrating for industry,' Anderson said. 'When I talk to pubs and clubs, they want certainty from this government and they are not getting it.' In November last year, the independent panel wrote a 'roadmap' on how to overhaul the state's regulation of poker machines and limit harm. The Minns government is yet to formally respond to the report's recommendations, which were contested by some panel members.
