A trial of cashless gaming that was a key pillar of the Minns government’s gambling platform at the March election will be delayed, as stakeholders continue to haggle over the make-up of the supervising panel.
Premier Chris Minns committed to a trial on 500 machines in clubs and pubs beginning on July 1. It will be designed and supervised by an independent panel comprised of representatives from law enforcement and industry, health and gambling experts and academics, and report 12 months later.
The NSW government’s cashless gaming trial will be delayed because of haggling over the supervising panel.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
But negotiations with industry, harm minimisation advocates and MPs over who should be appointed to the panel have taken longer than anticipated. The government is now aiming to appoint the panel by June 30, so it can begin designing the trial in July.
Gaming and Racing Minister David Harris said the government was determined to deliver on its commitment to reduce gambling harm and money laundering, and had already enacted a ban on the external signage of gaming rooms that would come into effect in September.
“I have consulted with a range of stakeholders about the panel including harm minimisation groups, industry representatives and Members of Parliament,” Harris said.
“We are in the final stages of putting the independent panel and a robust trial together, and we will have more to say about these changes over the next couple of weeks.”
Premier Chris Minns committed to a trial of cashless gaming on 500 machines in clubs and pubs beginning on July 1.Credit: NCA NewsWire
But Greens MP Cate Faehrmann said the public should be concerned industry pushback was the reason for the delay. ClubsNSW and the Australian Hotels Association have described mandatory cashless gambling as overkill.
“This has all the hallmarks of the gambling industry running interference to delay the implementation of this trial,” Faehrmann said. “Chris Minns must reassure the community that he will stand up to pressure from the gambling industry and not allow it to wreck the trial of a cashless gambling card before it’s even begun.”
Critics of the trial have argued that a body of evidence already exists to show cashless gaming reduces harmful gambling and stops money laundering. The technology was a key recommendation of the NSW Crime Commission following its investigation last year into money laundering in pubs and clubs.
The Parliamentary Budget Office determined that a trial would have no impact on the state’s revenue from gaming taxes, saying patrons who might be deterred from gaming as a result of cashless technology would visit locations not included in the trial.
The panel will be tasked with designing a trial to assess the impact of cashless gambling. The trial will consider different cashless technologies, what infrastructure investments are required, the impact on employment and industry, and how effectively the technology addresses addictive gambling behaviour.
Wesley Mission CEO Stu Cameron said it was more important for the trial to be designed appropriately than to begin on time, but the panel should include people with personal experience of gambling harm, and experienced academics whose research was not funded by the gambling industry. If it was stacked with industry figures, the trial could be used to justify avoiding a permanent cashless gambling system, he said.
“That’s the real fear and anxiety,” Cameron said. “This should be a pre-implementation test, not a trial. There’s enough evidence, we believe, to make a commitment [on cashless gambling] now.”
Gaming manufacturer Aristocrat and industry lobby groups ClubsNSW and the Australian Hotels Association NSW either declined to comment or did not return calls by Wednesday evening.
Greens MP Cate Faehrmann said the public should be concerned industry pushback was the reason for the delay.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
Faehrmann also raised concerns about the effectiveness of the government’s plan to reduce gaming machine entitlements, given profits from poker machines are rising despite a reduction in the number of machines.
Six-monthly figures released by Liquor and Gaming NSW last week showed combined poker machine profits rose by 40 per cent, or $1.2 billion, from the start of 2017 to the end of 2022, while the number of gaming machines dropped by 6.2 per cent.
Venues must hold a gaming machine entitlement for each poker machine they operate. The government has committed to reducing the state cap on gaming machine entitlements to be in line with the actual number owned by clubs and pubs. But there are more entitlements than there are machines because some venues stockpile them for future needs.
Gaming machine entitlements can trade for more than $600,000.
Monash University gambling researcher Charles Livingstone said when there are fewer poker machines the existing ones are used more.
“If you’re reducing the number of machines at your venue, the ones you’re going to get rid of are the ones that don’t perform very well,” Livingstone said.
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