Pauline Hanson, Jacinta Price slam NSW cashless pokies reforms

The casinos will be OK – it’s the sporting clubs and charities all throughout New South Wales that will suffer from the state government’s poker machine reforms.

These were the strong concerns brought forward by federal senators Pauline Hanson (Queensland) and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (Northern Territory) on Sky News’ Paul Murray Live show.

On Monday, the NSW Liberal and Nationals government launched a plan to make every poker machine in the state cashless by December 31, 2028.

The plan was in response to the NSW Crime Commission’s report into money laundering in electronic gaming machines.

The NSW Government said its package would provide support for pubs and clubs to transition to cashless gaming, including mandatory self-imposed limits and cooling-off periods, breaks in play, prohibiting the transfer of funds from credit cards and prohibiting automatic top-ups.

As part of financial harm minimisation, the Dominic Perrottet administration said these reforms would require players to set their own limits which cannot be increased for seven days, mandate breaks in play, enable third-party exclusion by a family member, and ban credit and automatic top-ups.

But senators Hanson and Price – along with Australia Today radio host Steve Price – slammed the proposals as intrusions on the freedoms of individuals.

They also agreed sporting clubs and communities would cop a financial hit because these laws would lead to less money available to support them.

“A pub is not worth much at all if the poker machines that they pay for (have limits) – because they make the money for the pubs and clubs,” Hanson said on the program on Monday night.

“And it keeps a lot of charities going.”

Hanson believes the NSW Government should not tell people what to spend their money on, or clubs how to run their businesses.

“People have to take responsibility for their own actions,” she said.

“And if governments interfere and tell people what they should be able to spend or can’t spend – I think they need to get out of telling people how to run their lives.

“We’ve become too much of a nanny state. Governments are supposed to be there to adhere to the constitutional rule of law and the economic stability of the country.

“Get out of telling people how to run their lives and their businesses.”

Jacinta Price threw her support behind Hanson.

“The casinos will be fine, but Pauline’s right – it’s those small pubs and clubs who rely on that (gambling money) to keep going,” she said.

“Perrottet could’ve backed in the cashless debit card, then that way you’re dealing with the problem gamblers more effectively.

“In the Northern Territory we’ve got a banned drinkers’ register. You can have a banned gamblers’ register.

“And for those individuals who’ve had serious issues, then they could be on that and they can’t open up the machine to get it started in the first place.”

Steve Price recently spent some time at the Sporties Barooga complex in southern NSW.

And from the feedback he received, staff at that club – which also includes golf, bowls and swimming venues – said the public who use those facilities would not benefit from the new pokies laws.

“Cobram Barooga Sporties Club on the Murray River in southern New South Wales – I went and talked to the blokes who run that club down there,” Price said.

“They said if Dominic’s cashless card comes in, you can forget about building swimming pools for the community like they have down there in Cobram Barooga.

“All of those investments that the clubs put into places around the country are going to go straight out the window.”

The NSW Government listed different types of support packages that would be available to communities, organisations, pubs and clubs as part of their collective transition towards cashless poker machines.

That kind of support would include some of the following measures:

• Interest-free loans will be available to support the entire cost of transition for small and medium-sized pubs and clubs.

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• A community grant program for small and medium-sized pubs and clubs will be available to cover the full cost of all non-tax deductible donations these organisations make to their communities, once they have confirmed an order for cashless technology and provided evidence of their transition plan to cashless gaming.

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• This community grant program would support grassroots organisations such as junior sporting teams, that the clubs or pubs may sponsor.

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• This grant will be paid every year until 2028 once a venue has confirmed its order of cashless technology and committed to a full transition plan, which will act as an incentive for earlier take-up.

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• A one-off diversification grant of up to $50,000 be paid to small and medium-sized pubs and clubs to support their pursuit of new revenue streams.

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• A regional fund of $40 million will support regional pubs and clubs transition to cashless technology, recognising the vital role they play in the bush.

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