The Labor Government said it will no longer pursue a policy of buying back one in 10 “pokies.” In total, 9,500 of the Australian state’s 87,770 poker machines would have been removed from venues.
NSW Gaming Minister David Harris told a parliamentary hearing that the government had changed its mind after viewing evidence that suggested the policy would not impact gambling. The policy was originally announced in 2023, before Labor came to power.
“It’s not the number of machines that’s the issue – it’s the intensity of play,” Harris told MPs. “So the state could pay $60 million to remove [2000] machines and make no difference other than that. It’s $60 million out of the budget that could have been spent on harm minimization.”
Latest Gambling U-turn
The government’s decision to backtrack on its policy has been criticized by opposition parties and activists such as the Alliance for Gambling Reform.
It is the latest U-turn by the government, which announced a series of changes in response to a landmark NSW Crime Commission report revealing that, potentially, billions of dollars were being laundered through pokies each year.
One of the proposals was the introduction of cashless gambling, meaning all participants and their transactions could be identified. However, a trial across the state attracted fewer than 20 active participants and the policy was later diluted and postponed.
