Labor’s candidate for the South Coast has told a community forum that gambling was mainly a problem among “cultural groups” in western Sydney, so cashless gambling should be trialled there before it was rolled out widely.
Liza Butler made the comment at a “meet the candidates” event at Husky Sports in Huskisson on March 14, in response to a question from the floor about cashless gaming. She said Labor supported cashless gaming but wanted to ensure that it did not push problem gamblers into online gambling, where their welfare would not be checked by club staff.
“So let’s strengthen clubs to self-regulate, and trial a cashless card in Sydney where the problem really is, in western Sydney with lots of cultural groups, and see if it actually works so we don’t push people into secret gambling,” Butler said.
The government intends to make all poker machines in pubs and clubs cashless by 2028. The measure is supported by the Greens and key independents, who have vowed to make a condition of their support to any party that wants to form a minority government.
But NSW Labor wants a trial of 500 machines before committing to the technology. It has not determined where the trial would be hosted if it wins government.
Labor leader Chris Minns said on Thursday he would rely on the advice of an independent committee to recommend the best places to host the trial.
“In informal talks and negotiations with people in the pubs and clubs industry, they have indicated to us that they’d like to be part of that trial in different parts of the state,” he said.
NSW Labor leader Chris Minns on the campaign trail in Yass on Thursday.Credit:Janie Barrett
“I can’t speculate on it now because I don’t want it to be the government’s decision. I would like the independent panel to make that call. But we’ve said already that it’s going to be city, country, and of course pubs and clubs.”
Butler did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Herald.
Minns said he acknowledged there were some communities in which problem gambling was more prominent than in others.
“I’m sure that is the case, and gambling harm across NSW is something that we would inherit if we do win government on the 25th of March. We know that it’s a problem.”
The top three local government areas for poker machine losses last year were all in south-western Sydney: Canterbury Bankstown, Fairfield and Cumberland. But the Shoalhaven LGA, a large part of which sits within the South Coast state electorate, recorded the sixth-highest poker machine losses in regional NSW. Gamblers lost $25.7 million on poker machines in Shoalhaven clubs and pubs in a single quarter last year.
Wesley Mission general manager Jim Wackett said gambling was a universal predilection.
“The stereotype is that all the gambling harm is in western Sydney, but the reality is that rural and regional areas are also heavily impacted by gambling losses, sometimes disproportionately so,” Wackett said. “The South Coast of NSW is no exception.”
There is little research on gambling that focuses specifically on multicultural communities. The Victorian Casino and Gaming Authority found in 2000 that people from cultural and linguistically diverse communities had lower gambling participation rates than the general community but a higher proportion of individuals who did gamble developed a problem.
Husky Sports, where Butler made her comments, has 32 poker machines. It ranked 489 for gambling losses among more than 1000 clubs, according to the latest figures released by NSW Liquor and Gaming.
The NSW Crime Commission recommended the introduction of a cashless card to stop money laundering through poker machines. The agency reported in October that money laundering in pubs and clubs was significant and widespread, comprising mostly the spending of the proceeds of crime but also the washing of it.
However, Butler told the forum that money laundering was “extremely rare these days” and the government should take action against pubs that displayed VIP signage outside their premises, which she said was illegal.
“It’s probably the nail places where they only take cash [who] is money laundering these days, and the laundromats,” she said.
She also suggested that concerned families could apply for their loved ones to be banned from local premises.
VIP signage is not illegal outside pubs and hotels, only the explicit advertising of poker machines. There is no scheme that allows third parties to exclude gamblers from venues in NSW, except at Dee Why RSL which was ordered to implement the policy after the gambling-related suicide of Gary Van Duinen.
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