NSW Labor leader Chris Minns faces a high-profile challenge in his marginal seat of Kogarah from gaming industry whistleblower Troy Stolz, who says he is contesting the March election to highlight his opponent’s failure to back poker machine reform.
Stolz, who worked for the lobby group ClubsNSW as an anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing auditor, will run as a “reform pokies independent” in Minns’ seat. It is Labor’s most marginal on 1.8 per cent, although redrawn boundaries means it is on 0.1 per cent.
ClubsNSW whistleblower Troy Stolz will contest Labor’s most marginal seat Kogarah.Credit: Nick Moir
The whistleblower, who exposed lax money laundering compliance in poker machine venues, said: “Chris Minns is in the pocket of pubs and clubs. He is backing vested interest and is failing his community.”
Minns has supported a trial of a cashless gaming card but has stopped short of supporting the universal removal of cash from poker machines. This is despite a key recommendation from the NSW Crime Commission, which called for a mandatory cashless card to combat money laundering.
Premier Dominic Perrottet is determined to reform the state’s gambling industry and has widespread support for a cashless gaming card from NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb, the peak union body UnionsNSW, churches, leading charities and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
Former prime minister John Howard has also thrown his support behind Perrottet’s cashless gaming card proposal, describing it as a “courageous and wise” decision.
Labor’s Chris Minns has stopped short of supporting the universal removal of cash from poker machines.Credit: Nikki Short
Stolz said he felt he had to run in Kogarah because “a vote for Minns was a vote for continued suffering and an open door for organised crime to keep doing what they are doing”.
“Minns’ lack of any meaningful action on pokies and the damage they cause is little more than kicking the problem into touch,” Stolz said.
Stolz said the gambling industry had long wielded too much power in NSW.
“There needs to be a candidate completely independent of the power of clubs and pubs and ultimately not beholden to the pokie dollar,” said Stolz, who has terminal cancer.
“The doctors and my wife think I am crazy, and it has the potential of shortening my life, but I want to see a cashless card come to fruition.”
He said as an independent, he would “fight to the best of my ability to ensure an independent voice pushing for this much needed change to end money laundering and strengthen harm minimisation – to ensure we have a safer and happier community”.
“The days of politicians from both sides pretending to be doing the best for the community whilst giving pubs and clubs a free ride to feed off the misery, and misery money, of others must come to an end,” Stolz said.
Gambling reform advocate and director of Ethical Voice Tim Costello said there was no reason for Minns to not support a bipartisan approach to a cashless gaming card.
“A dying man should not have to be running, but this is an enormous act of courage for future generations,” Costello said.
Stolz lives in Merriwa in the upper Hunter after being forced to sell his Central Coast home to pay the legals fees he has incurred during legal battles with his former employer ClubsNSW.
ClubsNSW is suing Stolz for disclosing confidential information, which relates to an internal ClubsNSW report dated May 2019 that found 95 per cent of registered clubs in NSW did not comply with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism laws.
Stolz leaked the report to federal independent MP Andrew Wilkie, The Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC in 2020, after allegedly failing to get traction when he raised issues internally.
Stolz is suing the clubs lobby for defamation and non-payment of employment benefits.
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