The key election promise NSW Labor has walked away from

The Minns government has abandoned its promise to remove 9500 poker machines from circulation in NSW, a key commitment made before the 2023 election to reassure voters Labor was serious about gambling reform.

During a budget estimates hearing on Wednesday, Treasurer Daniel Mookhey confirmed Labor would not follow through on its promise to remove the machines, after advice from the expert panel set up to advise it on gambling reform.

NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey fronted budget estimates on Wednesday.Credit: Sam Mooy

The panel, Mookhey said, “made the point that it was not a wise use of public funds”.

“We’ve listened to the advice of our expert panel who have suggested that is not a good use of public money,” he said. “We are listening to the advice we’ve had.”

Removing the machines was a key plank of Labor’s gambling reform commitments at a time when it faced pressure over its refusal to endorse the then-Coalition premier Dominic Perrottet’s promise to introduce cashless gaming.

Perrottet’s pledge came in response to a recommendation from the NSW Crime Commission, which found eliminating cash from poker machines would stop them being used by criminals to launder their dirty money.

At the time, the now-premier Chris Minns said there would be “less pokies in NSW”, while Mookhey told Sky News in a pre-election interview that under its plans, Labor would be able to remove 9500 machines “within five years”.

The reform would have been achieved via a combination of increases in entitlement forfeitures and a buyback scheme.

The government has previously lowered the cap on poker machine entitlements by 3000, but advice from the expert panel’s three-person executive committee warned following through on the promise would cost about $60 million and only remove a relatively small share of the overall poker machine entitlements.

The Coalition has seized on the decision to walk away from the commitment as evidence Labor was not serious about gambling reform. Opposition MP Chris Rath accused Mookhey of “telling porkies on pokies”.

Before the election, Labor promised to commission an expert panel to conduct a trial into cashless gaming technology. The trial, which was plagued by issues and which some participants claim was set up to fail, produced a report in November titled Roadmap for Gaming Reform.

The report was released late last year. The Sydney Morning Herald has previously reported that it recommended a shift to “account-based” gaming that would remove anonymous gambling.

The government has yet to commit to its recommendations. However, in defending the decision to walk away from the 9500 machine reduction on Wednesday, Mookhey suggested ignoring the panel would be a breach of the government’s election promise.

“It would be a break of our promise if we were to commission an independent panel and ignore their views,” he said.

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