Premier Dominic Perrottet unveils NSW plans for cashless gaming

After a long wait, Premier Dominic Perrottet finally released his gambling reform plans to the public. For several months now, the New South Wales premier has been clamouring for cashless gaming cards in the state without giving much details as to how such reform will pan out. But the unveiled plans give a roadmap to the premier’s gambling reform policies.

Perrottet’s plan to introduce cashless gaming to NSW pubs and clubs will take five years with an expenditure budget of $344 million. First of all, if Coalition wins the forthcoming elections, legislation will be made to ensure the transition is mandatory, starting from 2024 to 2028.

During that time, the premier plans to give pubs and clubs no-interest loans and a one-off grant of $50,000 to help these businesses buy new machines with cashless technology. The funds will also help them focus on improving non-gaming attractions such as food and live music to give them new income streams asides from gambling.

Concerning gambling harm protection, the plan will have players themselves setting their daily spending limit however this can only be changed once a week. Players’ cards will be linked to their bank accounts and for the main time, $500 is the feed-in limit on the gaming cards. There are also plans to improve data collection while the government finds means to exclude criminals who want to launder money. The premier has also assured workers in the gambling industry that their jobs are protected.

Perrottet’s plans, which were presented to a specially convened cabinet meeting for deliberation, were released ahead of the elections. While most of it was similar to Tasmania’s plans, it stopped short of being exactly the same due to no cap on spending limits.

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

Gambling reform advocate, Tim Costello, has praised the premier’s plans. He added that though it has its flaws, it has the potential to get the job done.
“It isn’t perfect, but it is pretty damn good. It is the biggest social reform that I have ever witnessed as a reform advocate for over 25 years,” he said.

He then called on Chris Minns, leader of the NSW Labor party and other leaders in the country to embrace the changes.

“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.”
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