Monday 19 March 2018

New South Wales has over 94,000 electronic gaming machines and up to 75 per cent of the money going into these machines comes from moderate risk and problem gamblers. This has led to disastrous social costs including financial ruin, homelessness and broken families.

Yet both sides of politics remain set on ensuring pubs and clubs can keep running mini casinos. Last week the government introduced some minor improvements to make it harder for gaming machines to move into ‘high risk’ areas while also helping clubs to transfer machines to other clubs without forfeiting their entitlement.

I opposed the bill but the major parties supported it, with members praising the work clubs do in the community with a small fraction of their massive poker machine profits. My speech is HERE.