New Gambling Figures Show NSW Losing More Than $150 Million A Week
Image: Ian Bayne/Flickr
Gambling losses on NSW poker machines have hit a record high, with pubs and clubs raking in $8.64 billion in revenue over 2024.
New data from Liquor and Gaming NSW shows a 6.3 per cent increase in net gaming profit among pubs and clubs since 2023, the steepest increase outside of the COVID rebound in at least six years.
“If you average out the appalling losses from poker machines, the people of NSW lose $166 million every week, or $47 million every weekend,” said NSW Council of Social Service CEO Cara Varian.
“That’s not a few having a punt, it’s a crisis. This new data is appalling in the extreme, and if it’s not a wake-up call to our state’s leaders, I’m not sure what is.”
This comes despite a fleet of gambling reform measures introduced by the state government in 2023, including the banning of external gambling signage, a reduction in the cash input limit on new gaming machines, and the investment of $100 million towards further changes.
Only last month, the government moved to ban gambling advertisements on public transport.
NSW Gambling culture a “preventable public health crisis”
Harm reduction advocates say the government needs to step up and tackle the issue head on.
“If we lined up every poker machine in NSW, the line of devastation would reach from Parliament House on Macquarie Street to Lithgow Workies,” said Varian.
“We’ve seen the NSW Government take small steps towards reform, but they’re avoiding the big step that would actually help – mandatory cashless gaming.
“The Independent Panel report explicitly recommended mandatory cashless gaming – if the Government doesn’t implement it now, we will never get ourselves out of this mess.”
Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Wesley Mission’s chief executive Stu Cameron said it was a “preventable public health crisis”.
“The government needs to ask itself – are they here to serve the people of NSW or protect the profits of pubs and clubs?
“There is no clear reason for this damaging rise though it is reasonable to assert that a ruthlessly efficient, harm causing industry continues to perfect their business models that wreak havoc across NSW.”
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