In New South Wales (NSW), there are a total of 95,000 poker machines across casinos, bars and clubs. In recent months, the state government has clashed with local trade associations, including ClubsNSW and the Australian Hotels Association (AHA), over its fight to mandate cashless play for all machines after numerous inquiries into operators’ violations of anti-money laundering (AML) regulations.
Now, Star Entertainment, which operates the biggest casino in the state in Star Sydney, has entered into the heated debate, calling for their counterparts to get with the program and adopt cashless sooner rather than later.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has said multiple times since November of last year that he will not back down from the backlash brought forth by the industry, and that the cashless transition is inevitable. That said, he has yet to announce any legislation or timetable detailing how and when that transition will be enforced.
In a statement to the Sydney Morning Herald, a Star spokesperson said that the company “supports the government’s move towards cashless play across the industry.”
The reason for this sentiment is that Star’s casinos only account for 2 percent of the state’s total machine count, with the rest residing in various bars and clubs. The longer that the trade associations fight with state officials, the longer the transition will take, and Star has asserted that this state of limbo is not good for the industry as a whole.
“The Star has less than 2 percent of the gaming machines in NSW with the rest housed in clubs and pubs,” the company told the Herald. “Unless cashless is embraced industry-wide and in a timely fashion, how can the government address the issues and achieve the results it has outlined?”
It should be noted that Star already signed agreements with the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) to transition their machines to cashless play all the way back in May of last year.
Even though the company is supportive of a cashless transition overall, it is still at odds with the NSW government over a recently proposed initiative from state Treasurer Matt Kean that would significantly raise tax rates on machine and table game winnings, but only for casinos and not bars and clubs.
Per the terms of the legislation, Star’s poker machines would be subject to a tax rate of 60.67 percent starting in July 2023—the announcement has already had a huge impact on the company’s financial projections, as analysts believe that if the change is implemented, it could slash Star’s market value by hundreds of millions.
Meanwhile, ClubsNSW and the AHA have posited that the costs and ripple effects of a cashless transition would result in job cuts and lost revenue, which has since been disputed by workers’ organizations such as the United Workers Union.
ClubsNSW has since launched a campaign titled “Reform the Right Way,” which has called for “practical and proportionate” changes. It has also said it plans to move forward with the implementation of facial recognition technology as allowed by privacy laws, despite the fact that legislation promoting the technology was recently scrapped.
