The union movement in New South Wales has launched a blistering attack on the state Labor government, arguing it has showed a “fundamental lack of ambition” in ending the “misery” caused by almost 90,000 poker machines.
Mark Morey, the secretary of Unions NSW, accused the Minns government of congratulating itself on what he said were superficial changes to an industry extracting $8.6bn from the state’s residents each year, with the majority of losses in low socioeconomic areas.
Morey’s criticism came hours after the state’s auditor general found the government had not set targets to reduce the harm caused by poker machines and could not confidently state if it was protecting people.
The auditor general also said the NSW government was doing “relatively little” to assess whether pubs and clubs are identifying and preventing gambling harm at their venues.
“Supply creates demand, and in turn, misery,” Morey said in response to the auditor general’s report.
“While the government congratulates itself on administrative changes, families in Fairfield are losing $3,225 per adult annually to poker machines.”
Unions NSW described state government efforts to reduce poker machine numbers as “woefully inadequate”.
The report assessed government conduct from 2019 to mid-2024 across both Labor and Coalition governments, but is likely to add to political pressure on the Minns government. Last week, a leading charity accused it of not doing enough to prevent serious harm caused by pokies.
The Department of Creative Industries, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport’s “strategy for regulating gaming machines is not based on a clear understanding of current levels of gambling harm and it does not set any targets for reducing harm associated with gaming machines”, the audit report said.
“The department does not have benchmarks, targets or other performance measures in place to assess outcomes against key measures of harm minimisation.
“There have been no evaluations of its compliance programs to measure their impact on harm minimisation outcomes. As a result, the department does not know whether its regulatory strategy is effective in minimising gambling harm.”
The audit report said gambling harm appears to have increased despite the government’s efforts.
“Calls to the GambleAware helpline increased by 8.5% in 2023–24 and gaming machine losses have increased in each of the last three years,” the report said. “The results of the 2024 NSW Gambling Survey did not indicate a reduction in the level of gambling harm in NSW.”
The report confirmed revenue from gambling taxes would increase from $2.47bn this financial year to $2.91bn in 2027-28.
“The forecast increase in gaming machine profits is due to expected increases in the use of gaming machines,” the report said.
The chair of the state’s independent liquor and gaming authority, Caroline Lamb, supported all recommendations from the audit.
“We propose to take a more structured approach to stakeholder engagement and acknowledge our responsibility, in conjunction with hospitality and racing, to ensure licensees meet their statutory obligations,” Lamb said.
The state’s gaming minister, David Harris, said the government “takes harm minimisation seriously and has implemented a number of initiatives”.
These initiatives include reducing the cash limit on new machines from $5,000 to $500, banning external signage at venues, putting more responsible gaming officers in venues and investing $100m in a gambling harm minimisation fund.
But Wesley Mission’s chief executive, Stu Cameron, believes these “limited reforms” are “clearly not having an impact”.
“While we didn’t 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: the NSW government has done next to nothing to reduce gambling harm while clubs and hotels pocket billions.”
In November last year, an independent panel advising the government on gambling reform wrote a “roadmap” for overhauling the state’s regulation of poker machines and limiting harm. The Minns government is yet to formally respond to the report’s recommendations, which were contested by some panel members.
Labor had pledged to conduct a trial of cashless gaming during the election campaign, but a pilot of a gaming scheme attracted only 32 participants.
The project was subsequently criticised by the Australian Hotels Association – whose members operate poker machines – which questioned the evidence base for further action. Clubs NSW made similar criticisms.
The shadow minister for gaming, Kevin Anderson, said “gambling losses continue to skyrocket in NSW while the independent panel’s report gathers dust on the desks of the premier and minister”.
“The Minns government must urgently respond to the recommendations in that report to give the community and the industry certainty of the path forward.”
• In Australia, Gambling Help online is available on 1800 858 858. The National Debt helpline is at 1800 007 007.
