The leader of the New South Wales state opposition party said Monday he would slash the number of poker machines in pubs and clubs across the state and reduce cash feed-in limits on new machines should he be elected as Premier at the upcoming March election.
Chris Minns, who has expressed his opposition to current Premier Dominic Perrottet’s promise to introduce mandatory cashless gaming this year, also vowed that his NSW Labor Party would run a 12-month trial of cashless gaming at selected locations in both metro and regional areas before making any decision on its future.
“I said from the outset this is a complicated policy area and we needed an evidenced-based approach to make sure any measures we introduced would work and wouldn’t have any unintended consequences,” Minns told media on Monday.
“Under Labor, we’ll have an evidence-based approach, less pokies in NSW and a range of harm minimization measures.”
According to details announced by Minns on Monday, the cashless trial would apply to around 500 venues, while an AU$100 million (US$70 million) fine recently levied against The Star Sydney be used to compensate those venues for any poker machine revenue lost during the trial.
From 1 July, all new machines would face a reduced cash feed-in limit of AU$500 (US$350), down from AU$5,000 (US$3,500), and poker machine signage outside venues would be banned.
Minns said his policy was aimed at reducing gambling harm and stamping out money laundering in pubs and clubs after a recent NSW Crime Commission report recommended the introduction of a mandatory cashless gaming card to prevent billions of dollars of dirty money being funnelled through each year.
The report, the product of a multi-agency investigation, found that money laundering via electronic gaming machines is not widespread due to a lack of efficiency, however large sums of the proceeds of crime are being gambled by criminals in pubs and clubs across the state. As such, it concluded that allowing cash to continue to be used in EGMs makes it easy for criminals to gamble with illegally gained money.
“We know the harmful effects of problem gaming on families, and I want to make sure we stamp out criminal activity in clubs,” said Minns.
The NSW state election is scheduled to take place on 25 March.
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