2 weeks ago
4
The poker machine industry is the running sore of NSW that refuses to heal itself or be brought to heel. Now some clubs are gaming the system with their own hard luck stories in their latest display of bare-faced cheek.
The Herald’s Harriet Alexander reports that three of the 10 most profitable clubs are operating with extended trading hours after gaining a “hardship exemption” to mandatory shutdown periods for poker machines. The six-hour shutdown from 4am to 10am was designed to protect vulnerable gamblers at their weakest moments. Legislation provides exemptions, but they have clearly turned into a rort.
Poker machine numbers have grown since Labor came to power in NSW.Credit: Dallas Kilponen
A review of gaming machine shutdown hours found that 673 clubs and pubs – 20 per cent of venues with poker machines – are exempt, including 34 on hardship grounds, though many amass millions of dollars in revenue. The findings, quietly published earlier this year, were highlighted at budget estimates last week, increasing pressure on the Minns government to respond to the recommendations made by the Independent Panel on Gambling Reform in December.
The revelations come less than a month after AUSTRAC, the financial crime watchdog, launched civil proceedings against Mount Pritchard District and Community Club, also known as Mounties, the most profitable club group in NSW, for “serious and systemic” non-compliance with anti-money laundering laws.
Politicians have been dancing around poker machine reform since 2022, when the NSW Crime Commission delivered a damning report that found they attracted significant amounts of dirty money and highlighted the massive social problems that resulted. The cost: NSW residents lost $2.3 billion, nearly $1 million an hour, playing in the second quarter of 2025, an increase of 8.7 per cent over 2024.
Loading
Some clubs using exemptions did not meet the qualifying criteria, suggesting various governments have allowed them to get away with beating the system for years. To address such rorts, the Independent Panel on Gaming Reform recommended the removal of exemptions to the shutdown period and a transition to “account-based” gaming with pre-determined loss limits and know-your-customer checks.
But NSW Gaming Minister David Harris cautioned against radical reforms, pointing to the collapse of Sydney’s taxi industry after deregulation as the promise of things to come. “Do you want us to rush out with a back-of-the-envelope strategy? You did that with taxi licences, and you sent people broke overnight,” he said.
There are no parallels between the taxi and poker machine industries. Cabs have never been associated with social harm and money-laundering, but Harris’ decision to favour the fate of clubs over the impact of gambling is specious. So, too, is his reference to a government working out policy on the back of an envelope. The government has had the Independent Panel on Gambling Reform report since December and it has done little other than Premier Chris Minns’ mealy-mouthed decision to all but rule out making cashless gambling mandatory.
Little wonder then that in the face of such government inertia, clubs have the temerity to cry poor to prey on their weakest customers.
Bevan Shields sends an exclusive newsletter to subscribers each week. Sign up to receive his Note from the Editor.
