Perrottet reveals $344m pokies reform plan for NSW

Premier Dominic Perrottet intends to spend $344 million to reform New South Wales’ gambling industry in what would be a landmark community, social and law enforcement project.

According to the plan, clubs and pubs in New South Wales will be given a period of five years to implement the new policies for operating poker machines.

The change is the most significant thing to happen to pokies since gambling machines were legalized in NSW in 1956. This cashless gaming system also allows punters to input their own loss limits.

The state government revealed the plan on Monday after facing months of resistance, including some from within the Coalition. Speaking on the cashless gaming system, Premier Perrottet claimed that it would save lives and protect jobs. He also said it would “ensure that our communities across NSW are stronger now and into the future”.

The poker machine reform will be introduced if the Coalition wins the upcoming state election in March. The state will then undergo a transition from cash to cashless gaming from 2024 to 2028.

According to the reform, gamblers can set their spending limits; however, the limits can only be altered once a week because they will be locked for seven consecutive days after they are set.

An independent reform implementation team will consider the daily limits, and players’ personal data will not be collected by the government, clubs, or pubs during this process.

The plan will see players’ cards tied to one bank account and the implementation of short-term $500 cash feed-in limits. A statewide self-exclusion register will also be set up for gamblers who want to exempt themselves.

Perrottet’s new plan also offers financial assistance to regional pubs and clubs to help them compensate for the revenue losses caused by the poker machine reform. This includes giving small and medium venues no-interest loans to enable them to purchase new devices with cashless technology.

READ: ClubNSW’s comments on cashless gaming card reform ‘absurd’

The establishments will also be given $50,000 grants to aid them in funding other revenue streams like food or live music to curb their reliance on the income generated by gambling.

Perrottet presented the proposal to a specially convened cabinet meeting that was conducted on Sunday night. There, he called the reforms a “once-in-a-lifetime change” and promised to “fix” the mess created by poker machines.

“Today we deliver one of the biggest law enforcement, social and community reforms in the state’s history … This is a mess that we fix today,” Perrottet declared.

“We cannot have a situation in NSW where families are broken and people are putting their life savings down pokie machines.”

The Premier explained that the state would need at least five years to implement the cashless gaming reform to reduce the chances of job loss. He also referred to the millions of dollars reserved for a poker machine buyback scheme as “money well spent”.

As part of the reforms, Perrottet included a plan which would introduce a feature to exempt individuals suspected of having ties to proceeds of crimes from poker machine venues.

The Premier claimed that his motivation for the state gambling industry overhaul was not in a bid to be a “wowser”. Perrottet contended that there would be no recorded job loss due to his new reforms, despite concerns from the gaming industry that it would decrease the gambling income received by clubs and pubs in the state.

“My commitment to them, as late as Saturday, is I’ll work to make sure that no one is left behind, that no jobs are lost,” he said.

“This is not about being a wowser, this is about looking after the vulnerable, this is about stopping money laundering.”

Perrottet also opined that people who refused to accept that NSW had a gambling problem had opted to keep their heads buried in the sand. He mentioned his tenure as treasurer during the pandemic, referring to it as evidence that he could lead the club and pub industry out of a challenging time.

“Past performance should be the best indicator of future performance and as treasurer during the pandemic, in those dark days, I worked day and night with that industry, with pubs and clubs, with a whole range of reforms to get every single one of them through those challenging years, and we did and we’ll do it again,” the Premier stated.

“There are things I’m sure over this next period of time that I haven’t envisaged that I’ll need to address and make those changes, but we will.”

Tim Costello, the chief advocate of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, commended Perrottet’s plan, noting that while it was not “perfect”, it was “pretty damn good”. He also promised to continue working hand-in-hand with the government to implement a loss limit for punters.

Costello asked for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s assistance in pushing for national reform and encouraged NSW Labor leader Chris Minns to build on his promised cashless gambling trial.

“I say to Chris Minns, for no other reason – do this for Julia Gillard, this was a Labor initiative first and I hope this is now going to be bipartisan,” he said.

Costello referred to the poker machine reforms previously pushed by the former prime minister, which were eventually abandoned after significant industry pressure.

“Chris Minns has to face this question: crime commission, police commissioner, charities, churches, health practitioners [are] all saying we need the cashless card and who’s on the other side of the ledger? Chris Minns, Mark Latham, John Barilaro. Is that the company you want to be in? You need to step up and I think Prime Minister Albanese needs to step up,” he continued.

By April, an independent implementation team will be put together to create a plan to remove cash from poker machines between 2024 and 2027. The cabinet secretary, Michael Coutts-Trotter, and the Department of NSW Premier will head the group.

In January, Minns revealed that if a Labor government won the March election, it would see to the introduction of a mandatory trial involving a minimum of 500 poker machines. The move was, however, described as too weak by gambling reform advocates and cross-bench MPs.

Teal independents such as Pittwater candidate Jacqui Scruby, Joeline Hackman in Manly, and Lane Cove’s Victoria Davidson have promised to implement gambling reform measures in the event of a hung parliament. Independent MPs Greg Piper and Alex Greenwich also disclosed that their support would depend on substantial gambling reform.

The NSW state election will occur on March 25 and is expected to be the most closely matched state election race in years.

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