Perrottet promises cashless gaming card for clubs and pubs

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has committed to mandatory cashless gaming cards in clubs and pubs but has stopped short of saying when or how the technology would be rolled out as Labor warned attempts to combat money laundering could do more harm than good.

Brushing aside opposition from within his own government, Perrottet on Thursday said he was committed to implementing the cards following a damning NSW Crime Commission investigation into the billions of dollars being laundered through poker machines each year.

“This is not a knee-jerk response [but] I can’t be clearer in relation to the direction we are heading. This is not a matter of if we do it, it’s a matter of how we do it,” he said.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has committed to a mandatory cashless gaming card.Credit: Rhett Wyman

However, Perrottet has not yet outlined a plan or timeline for implementation, and anti-gambling advocates are privately concerned he may opt for only a trial, which would push a wider rollout for the state’s 100,000 poker machines well beyond the March election.

Perrottet said he had already had “constructive discussions with the crossbench” about how to implement a new system, and would work closely with pubs and clubs, which are vehemently opposed to a mandatory cashless card.

The introduction of the gaming card, a recommendation from the Crime Commission inquiry codenamed Project Islington, would need to go to cabinet, and Perrottet will also need to convince Nationals colleagues who have not committed to supporting the technology.

Asked on Thursday if the Nationals shared Perrottet’s backing of a cashless card, the party’s deputy leader Bronnie Taylor would not comment.

“What the Nationals do is we all get around the table, we talk together and we have those discussions inside a room and we come out ... that’s a question for my leader,” Taylor said.

NSW Nationals leader and Police Minister Paul Toole also did not back the measure on Wednesday, saying the “technology wasn’t there”. Liberal Transport Minister David Elliott has been vocal in his opposition to a cashless gaming card.

Despite the powerful Crime Commission insisting that cashless cards were critical to combating money laundering, Labor leader Chris Minns would also not take a position, instead citing a report which he says claims the technology could do more harm than good.

Minns said the opposition had not seen any proposals from the government so could not give a “straightforward, blank cheque agreement to a policy issue”.

“The reason for that is you have got an industry that says they don’t have the resources to roll out the technology immediately to within a truncated timeframe,” Minns said.

NSW Labor leader Chris Minns would not take a position on the cashless gaming cards.Credit: Nikki Short

“The second thing is that you’ve got a report from the Victorian [Responsible] Gambling Foundation that indicates that it may induce demand when it comes to problem gambling as a result of there not being a sense of how much you are losing.”

The July 2020 report for the foundation found that cashless payment methods have an “easy money” effect and that cash is better for capping spending.

Minns’ comments incensed independent MP Alex Greenwich, who has made it clear the introduction of a mandatory cashless gaming card was his priority and would determine which party he would support in the event of another minority government after the March election.

“Rather than questioning the Crime Commission report, Labor should be asking why it is so important for ClubsNSW that the proceeds of crime are being washed through their venues,” Greenwich said.

“It is in Labor seats where the most gambling harm is being done, they should be looking after people not pokies.”

Greenwich and the other key independents, Greg Piper and Joe McGirr, want Perrottet to establish a special commission of inquiry into the undue influence clubs and pubs have on the major parties.

They wrote to the premier on Wednesday, calling for a powerful inquiry into “gambling harm and the influence of the gambling industry over public policy”.

Their push came after the government scrapped a bill to reform registered clubs. A component of that bill would have allowed facial recognition technology in pubs and clubs for the purposes of keeping out people who had self-identified as problem gamblers.

ClubsNSW is proceeding with its plans to implement the technology in compliance with existing privacy laws.

Facial recognition technology was not looked at as part of the money laundering investigation, with NSW Crime Commissioner Michael Barnes questioning how it would address money laundering.

“What would you do, put in anyone who’s ever been convicted of drug dealing and all of those suspected of drug dealing? In many cases, middle-range drug dealers are only found when they’re arrested and prosecuted,” Barnes said.

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