Pokies. The Beatles were wrong, enough money can buy you love

$10 Billion in slot losses for players and $10 Billion in profits for clubs, bars and the government – ​​another year rolls by. Michael West News about NSW’s forgotten but epic gambling scourge.

They say money can’t buy love; but in NSW slot games money can buy you a lot of love from governments. And protection. It’s often said that clubs in NSW – you know your friendly RSL, leagues or bowls club – represent the biggest gambling industry in the biggest gambling province in the biggest gambling country in the world.

We don’t have the latest forensic research to piece this together; maybe Las Vegas Nevada could argue otherwise. But the numbers are eye-watering. And the NSW state government, under Premier Chris Minns, is doing nothing to address the social harm other than making $2 billion a year in profits and increasing that figure.

(You can see recent efforts hereand the lobby’s exaggerated reaction.)

On June 12, 2025, New South Wales Audit Office published a report titled Arrangement of gaming machines. He berates the NSW government for not supporting the harm minimization implications of poker machines.

The government responded inadequately to the Court of Auditors’ key findings. They claimed that the quest for effective regulation of slot machines was “complex”. No it’s not. A correct response would be: “Sorry, this is too profitable, so we’ll just keep pretending we’re doing something”.

Has the Minns regime commissioned the same PR agency as federal communications minister Anika Wells, who is still undecided on gambling advertising reform because it is too “complicated”? In his case and that of his predecessor, Attorney General Michelle Rowland, nothing could be simpler than imposing an advertising ban.

Since we revealed Sportsbet’s numerous breaches here earlier in the year, not a whimper has been heard from regulators.

A hot mess. Sneaky Sportsbet’s ‘disorder’

As with Sportsbet’s increased profits, the financial benefits for pubs and clubs (including union clubs) and the associated slot taxes to governments are astronomical. Note that the Audit Office numbers are now outdated, but if you look at the club accounts you will see that they are increasing each year. Risk-free, tax-free (except for fees charged by the NSW Government).

The Court of Accounts report is of such high quality that it is enough to cut and paste quotes from it along with a few editorial comments.

Fun facts from the NSW Audit Office (and keen observations from us)

More than half of all gaming machines in Australia are located in New South Wales. Current government policy settings mean it will take 55 years for NSW to reach the same level as the national per capita average for gaming machines.

So the NSW government is leaving it to future generations to deal with the confusion caused by the saturation of existing poker machines.

In June 2024, 87,749 gaming machines were operating in clubs and hotels in NSW. The legal limit for gaming machines is even higher at 95,739.

In NSW the legislative limit is always higher because clubs and hotels must have the capacity to increase the number of poker machines when necessary to increase their profits.

The local government areas of Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Cumberland had the highest density of gaming machines and the highest socio-economic disadvantage. In Fairfield, there was one gaming machine for every 55 people. In contrast, in Ku-ring-gai local government area, there was one gaming machine for every 1,443 people.

What better way to tackle Fairfield’s cost-of-living crisis than to cram as many poker machines as possible into its streets? What’s next? Do Fairfield’s public schools and libraries have slot machines to reduce that rate to one in 10?

$8.4 billion net profit from gaming machines for clubs and hotels in 2023-24 and $2.3 billion in tax revenue from gaming machines in NSW in 2023-24.

In other words, annual gambling losses on poker machines in NSW are $10.7 billion. The NSW Government euphemistically describes poker machines as “fun”, as if losing your shirt is a path to happiness.

One in five venues in NSW have an exemption allowing gaming machines to be operated from 4am to 10pm.

Dracula did his best bloodsucking job in the early morning hours. Exemptions are apparently necessary so that people with mental illness and gambling addiction can exercise their civil liberties to ‘have fun’ at 4am by causing financial hardship to themselves, their families and their communities. Salvos and Anglicare can clear.

The Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority, the regulator for poker machines in NSW, had a budget of $4.9 million for 2023-24.

Editor: The NSW government regulates the industry by spending 0.231%, or 0.2 cents, for each poker machine tax dollar, as a percentage of taxes collected on poker machines. Let’s face it they are not fair dinkum.

The relevant NSW government department (Department of Creative Industries, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport) does not effectively support harm minimization strategies. They have a regulatory strategy that does not adequately focus on areas deemed to be high risk for gambling harm. They set no goals for reducing harm associated with gaming machines. Inevitably, the social costs of gaming machine losses and gambling harm continue to be disproportionately concentrated in socio-economically disadvantaged communities.

Let the suicides, financial hardship and domestic violence attributable to the saturation of poker machines and gambling addiction in licensed premises serving alcohol at 4am continue because the NSW government cares too much about money and the money box and buying you the love of poker machines.

As we have said many times here, the justification for slot games is empty. The club lobby claims that revenue from slots is directed to ‘the community’, but MWM’s research into the financial statements of top clubs shows that their profits are overwhelmingly derived from slots (as opposed to food and drink) and that they ‘give back’ just over 3% of slot profits to the ‘community’.

And one last point: the ‘complicated’ excuse is also hollow. As with gambling advertising, the ban is easy to legislate (although the media and betting companies oppose it, the electronic play card on slots is also a simple way to control both problem gambling* and* money laundering).

Money is huge and this is not complicated, it is a simple fact.

Pokies: Rise of the Machines