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There is a particular feature of poker machine play that raises the pulses of reform advocates and gamblers alike, known as “losses disguised as wins”. The lights flash and the bells ring and the machine celebrates the spin like a win, but the payout is less than the amount wagered.
Depending how far you wind back the time machine on this state’s slow descent into poker machine addiction, the Minns government’s long-awaited gambling reform package could be described as a loss disguised as a win. There is nothing terrible about the measures announced on Tuesday. It’s a grab-bag of things that can’t hurt, things that might work and things that are long overdue.
But it goes nowhere near addressing the social harms that have emerged as a result of NSW having the highest number of poker machines per person in the world.
Starting with that metric, for example, the package includes an increased forfeiture rate when gaming machine entitlements are traded from one in three to one in two, so that for every two entitlements traded, one machine is permanently removed from circulation. This is designed to reduce the number of poker machines over time.
NSW has about 87,000 poker machines. That is just 13,758 fewer than when the forfeiture scheme was introduced 25 years ago. The NSW Audit Office projected last year it would take 55 years to reach parity with the national average. The accelerated forfeiture rate might shave a decade off that timeframe, but only if pubs and clubs do not change their behaviour. They might decide the forfeiture rate is too high and stop transferring their entitlements altogether.
The second big item is a state-wide third-party exclusion scheme for people experiencing gambling harm. Gambling harm advocates have long advocated for this. Previously, people could ask to be excluded from particular venues, but there was nothing to stop them going elsewhere to get their gambling fix. Few will object to that loophole being closed, or the new ability for third parties to intervene to place their loved ones on the exclusion register.
Similarly, the strengthened protections against harmful gambling advertising, a ban on VIP programs that reward high rollers, a ban on gambling advertising on government-owned buildings and new transparency requirements for influencers can only reduce gambling harm.
But when it comes to poker machines being used for money laundering – that is, criminals using them to disguise the origins of dirty cash – the changes fall far short.
A casual observer might forget the NSW Crime Commission’s damning 2023 report into money laundering in pubs and clubs was the original catalyst for gambling reform. That problem has not gone away. The financial crimes watchdog last year launched civil proceedings against the state’s largest club group, Mounties, for allegedly allowing criminals to launder $226 million through its pokies.
The independent panel for gaming reform recommended last year the government introduce mandatory account-based gaming, which would require gamblers to provide identification and allow crime agencies to track their transactions.
This top-line recommendation has appeared only in ghost form. Under these reforms, the government will upgrade the Centralised Monitoring System over the next two years to allow venues to transition to account-based play, which will give players the option of playing without cash – but it will not be mandatory.
Setting aside the fact they could have done this two years ago, a voluntary, ad hoc system will do nothing to reduce money laundering. Instead, the government has committed to introducing mandatory facial recognition technology at the entrance to gaming rooms – the money laundering prevention method favoured by the gambling industry – and this will also support the state-wide exclusion program.
One pundit quipped the most generous thing that could be said about the package was that it was more than any other government has done, but only because the bar was so low.
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