Cashless gaming clash on the cards in NSW

The Perrottet government is under renewed pressure to introduce mandatory cashless gaming cards in all NSW clubs and pubs after recommendations by the NSW Crime Commission.

Mandatory cashless gaming cards have long been opposed by ClubsNSW and the Australian Hotels Association.

The Perrottet government is under renewed pressure to introduce mandatory cashless gaming cards in all NSW clubs and pubs after recommendations by the NSW Crime Commission, which found that criminals are funnelling billions of dollars of “dirty” cash through poker machines with no effective controls to identify or prosecute them.

On Wednesday, Dominic Perrottet set the scene for a showdown with the pubs and clubs industry, declaring “there is no place for money laundering of this scale in our state” and vowing to implement the recommendations. “This cannot continue and we’re going to do everything we can as a state to fix it and that’s exactly what I will do.

“The report backs in everything I believe from the initial discussions with the head of the Crime Commission. I will work very closely with the industry in implementing those recommendations to fix it,” Mr Perrottet said. “NSW has more poker machines than anywhere outside of Nevada,” he said.

Mandatory cashless gaming cards have long been opposed by ClubsNSW and the Australian Hotels Association, two of the most powerful and politically influential lobby groups in the state, who argue that banning the use of cash in gambling machines will cripple their venues.

NSW Crime Commissioner Michael Barnes said $95bn in cash flowed through poker machines in NSW each year, offering one of the last safe havens where cash from criminal enterprises could be “cleaned” with virtual impunity.

“These basic reforms will help exclude vast sums of dirty cash that are primarily the proceeds of drug dealing. I’m sure venues won’t argue they should keep receiving that,” Mr Barnes said.

The Crime Commission investigation was carried out in collaboration with the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority NSW, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and AUSTRAC.

The Crime Commission conceded that the “cleaning” of the proceeds of crime was not widespread in clubs and pubs as processing vast sums of cash was inefficient, compared with other avenues for laundering.

“However, large sums of the proceeds of crime are being gambled by criminals in pubs and clubs across the state, rewarding and perpetuating crime in the community,” Mr Barnes said.

ClubsNSW chief executive Josh Landis said the report confirmed gaming machines were not being used to clean large quantities of dirty money and the practice was not widespread.

“All that demonisation of the clubs, that we’re not doing enough, that we’re not compliant with the law – that’s all bollocks. This is vindication,” Mr Landis said.

Empowering clubs to ban criminals for life and allowing police to alert venues to patrons with criminal links, along with the introduction of facial recognition technology was a much more effective solution, he said.

“What you’re doing now is stopping ordinary people playing poker machines.”

The Australian Hotels Association slammed the recommendation as “unjustified over-reach”.

“We have an industry on its knees post-Covid now being told to introduce an unproven, untested, uncosted and unnecessary cashless system, which treats every patron like a criminal,” AHA NSW chief executive John Whelan said.