RSL clubs call on members to speak up against cashless gaming

NSW Returned Services League clubs have urged members to wage war against Premier Dominic Perrottet’s cashless gaming card, warning that overhauling gambling could be a knee-jerk reaction with unintended consequences.

In the latest newsletter to members from the RSL and Services Clubs Association, Margot Smith, the organisation’s chief executive, issued a call to arms as Perrottet pushes ahead with turning the state’s 90,000 poker machines cashless.

In her CEO note, Smith said “we need to awaken the silent majority and ask them to support the clubs who have been supporting them for so long”. She urged RSLs to remind MPs of the influence that clubs have in communities.

RSLs are the latest to join the opposition to Premier Dominic Perrottet’s cashless gaming card.Credit: Louise Kennerley

Perrottet is finalising a proposal to take to pubs and clubs ahead of the March election which would remove cash from machines across NSW to combat money laundering and problem gambling.

His decision to pursue the card followed a damning report from the powerful NSW Crime Commission, which found poker machines in clubs were being used to wash dirty cash from proceeds of crime. The commission’s report recommended a cashless gaming card.

However, the premier faces fierce opposition from the peak lobby group representing registered clubs, ClubsNSW, as well as smaller groups such as the RSL association, which argues that “the holes in the ‘plan’ are too vast” and could cause more harm than good.

Smith said the industry supported a “digital solution” for poker machines, but clubs did not “want to harm the majority of our communities to placate the minority”.

“We need the powers that be to understand that there could be unintended consequences of imposing a cashless card, or other knee-jerk options, in the wrong way at the wrong time,” Smith wrote in the association’s magazine.

Smith said a “quick Google search shows that gambling can be found as far back as 2300 BC – and so for over 4322 years, people have been enjoying taking a punt in one form or another through the ages as a form of entertainment”.

“We need to be using this pivotal time to influence a more balanced view of gambling,” Smith wrote.

“I would encourage you to engage local members to provide a more balanced view – implementing a flawed solution for the sake of optics is not the answer and could harm all of us.”

Also in the association’s newsletter is a paper by gaming lawyer Brett Boon, which argues that “the detail of the cashless recommendations are concerning for clubs”.

“Will the vast majority of casual punters sign up for such a stringent regime to have a flutter? The recent massive cyber hacks of Optus and Medibank will make them even more reluctant,” Boon wrote.

Smith warned that “if sweeping changes are implemented that aren’t done in collaboration with industry, it could mean that the facilities and connections our community rely on are affected”.

“Our ecosystem casts votes and we need to mobilise local members of parliament, our members and community support so that the full extent of our network and influence is understood,” she wrote.

ClubsNSW has also launched a campaign, Gaming Reform the Right Way, to oppose the cashless gaming card, and will specifically target Murray independent MP Helen Dalton.

Dalton has joined independent MPs, including Alex Greenwich, Greg Piper and Joe McGirr, and the Greens, community groups and religious organisations calling for gambling reform.

“Forcing punters to use a government-issued cashless card at their local club is wrong,” the ClubsNSW campaign says. “The proposal is reckless and unproven. The impacts and implications haven’t been thought through. Local clubs support practical and proportionate reform.”

The campaign urges club patrons to email their local MP and voice concerns about the card.

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