Perrottet unveils $340 million plan to overhaul NSW gambling industry

Premier Dominic Perrottet will spend more than $340 million to overhaul the state’s gambling industry in what he described as the biggest social, community, and law enforcement reform in the state’s history.

Perrottet on Monday committed to turning all poker machines in NSW cashless within five years in the most significant change to gambling since pokies were legalised in the state in 1956.

Premier Dominic Perrottet with Herald editor Bevan Shields at the Sydney Summit at the International Convention and Exhibition Centre on Monday.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

The Herald revealed on Sunday night that Perrottet’s new plan would also include no-interest loans for small and medium venues to buy new machines with cashless technology and one-off $50,000 grants to pubs and clubs to help fund new income streams such as live music and food to reduce their reliance on gambling revenue.

The proposal was presented to a specially convened cabinet meeting on Sunday night after Perrottet promised to release his plan ahead of next month’s state election. Perrottet described the reforms as a “once-in-a-lifetime change”.

“Today we deliver one of the biggest law enforcement, social and community reforms in the state’s history ... This is a mess that we fix today,” he said.

“We cannot have a situation in NSW where families are broken and people are putting their life savings down pokie machines.”

He said it would take five years to turn the state’s poker machines cashless in order to prevent job losses.

“Reform to get it right takes time,” he said, adding that millions set aside for a poker machine buyback scheme was “money well spent”.

The reforms also include a plan to introduce a mechanism to exclude people suspected of dealing with the proceeds of crime from venues with poker machines.

Perrottet said new gambling limits, which would be determined by the user, would be locked for seven days after they were set, with the government also working to improve data collection from the machines.

Earlier on Monday, Perrottet said his motivation to overhaul the state’s gambling industry was not born out of being “a wowser”. He said no jobs would be lost as a result of his new reforms amid consternation from industry that cashless gambling would reduce revenue for NSW pubs and clubs.

“My commitment to them, as late as Saturday, is I’ll work to make sure that no one is left behind, that no jobs are lost,” he told the Committee for Sydney’s Sydney Summit.

“This is not about being a wowser, this is about looking after the vulnerable, this is about stopping money laundering.”

Perrottet said anyone who denied gambling was a problem in NSW had “their head in the sand”.

He pointed to his time as treasurer during the COVID-19 pandemic as evidence he was capable of helping the pub and club industry through a tumultuous period.

“Past performance should be the best indicator of future performance and as treasurer during the pandemic, in those dark days, I worked day and night with that industry, with pubs and clubs, with a whole range of reforms to get every single one of them through those challenging years, and we did and we’ll do it again,” he said.

“There are things I’m sure over this next period of time that I haven’t envisaged that I’ll need to address and make those changes, but we will.”

Gambling reform advocate Tim Costello lauded the government’s reforms and said, while Perrottet’s plan wasn’t perfect, it was “pretty damn good”.

“It is the biggest social reform that I have ever witnessed as a reform advocate for over 25 years,” he said.

He said the government’s assistance package for pubs and clubs was necessary to “stop the squealing”.

Costello also called on NSW Labor leader Chris Minns to expand his promised trial, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to step up and push for national reform.

“I say to Chris Minns, for no other reason – do this for Julia Gillard, this was a Labor initiative first and I hope this is now going to be bipartisan,” Costello said, referring to the former prime minister’s push for poker machine reforms that were abandoned following intense industry pressure.

An independent implementation team would be appointed in April to devise a technology road map to remove cash from all machines in a five-year window between the start of 2024 and the end of 2028. It will be headed by Department of NSW Premier and Cabinet secretary Michael Coutts-Trotter.

Opposition Leader Chris Minns last month announced a Labor government would introduce a mandatory trial for at least 500 poker machines if it won the March election, although crossbench MPs and gambling reform advocates have described it as too weak.

Several teal independents contesting the state election have already said they would make a series of gambling reform measures a condition of their support should the state poll result in a hung parliament.

The independents include Jacqui Scruby, candidate for Pittwater; Lane Cove’s Victoria Davidson; and Joeline Hackman in Manly. Both current independent MPs Alex Greenwich and Greg Piper have also said their support would be conditional upon strong gambling reform.

Both the Coalition and Labor are facing the prospect of a minority government, or hung parliament, in what is expected to be the tightest state election race in decades.

Our Breaking News Alert will notify you of significant breaking news when it happens. Get it here.