NRL star Nathan Hindmarsh talks about his poker machine addiction

Pokie profits in NSW are more than a quarter of a billion dollars for the top 25 pubs, but the community is asking at what cost? Picture: News CorpSource:News Limited

Best Pokie Machines to Play. Pokie machines are an extremely popular pastime in Australia. In fact, almost 40% of all Australians play pokies. With almost 200,000 pokies machines in the country, there is about one pokie machine for every 100 Australian citizens. For foreigners coming into Australia, the concept of pokies is an interesting one. NSW was the first state to allow gambling venues to reopen, and government stimulus payments are likely to be boosting poker machine profits, similar to the “pokies and plasma payouts” of 2008-2009, Gambling treatment and research centre director at the University of Sydney, Associate Professor Sally Gainsbury said.

TALK about hitting the jackpot.

Poker machines are dispersed across 4000 venues in NSW, and only 1500 of the total 96,000 machines are in the Star casino. Tim Costello, chief advocate for the Alliance for Gambling Reform, has written to Premier Gladys Berejiklian, urging her cabinet to support a gambling card.

NSW’s top 25 pokie pubs, all based in the greater Sydney region, raked in nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in profit in the past financial year, it has been revealed.

Liquor and Gaming NSW published the list of the state’s top 25 earners, with the El Cortez Hotel in Fairfield sitting in top place.

But there are warnings that the “mega profits” have come at significant community cost.

Thirteen of the 25 hotels are in the Fairfield and Canterbury/Bankstown region.

Fairfield, the city’s most disadvantaged area, demanded a freeze on new machines in clubs and pubs in at-risk communities in a submission to the state government.

The 25 hotels made a total of $253 million in poker machine profit during 2016/17, according to NSW Greens MP Justin Field.

The NSW government anticipates raising more than $100 million in tax from the top 25 hotels, Fairfax Media reports.

Mr Field says the hotels’ “mega profits” cause immeasurable harm to families and communities.

“Pokies are highly addictive products,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

“(There are) powerful lobby groups pushing in their favour and covering up their true impacts.” The Greens MP is urging the state government to protect the vulnerable and wants the government to consider $1 bet limits along with an acceleration in the overall reduction in the number of poker machines in NSW.

Fairfield City Mayor Frank Carbone in July called on the NSW government to stop investing in poker machines in his community.

Poker machine, gaming, gambling. Generic Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

Today, he again urged the NSW government to protect vulnerable members of his community.

Mr Carbone said while Fairfield is home to 2.6 per cent of NSW’s population it houses four per cent of the state’s poker machines and contributes nine per cent of tax revenue from pokies.

All this while suffering from unemployment rates double the state’s average, the mayor said.

“We urge the state government to correct the imbalance of tax revenue received from Fairfield City and to invest it back into the local community through the creation of jobs and infrastructure.”

ADDICTIVE PROFITS

NSW has half of Australia’s gaming machines and 10 per cent of the total worldwide, with about 95,000 machines across the state.

Players can feed in as much as $7000 into just one machine.

About $8.27 billion was gambled on pokies in Fairfield alone, and $80 billion played across NSW in 2015-16.

That’s around 55 per cent of the national total gambled on poker machines, which was $135.7 billion in 2014-15.

About 85 per cent of what punters gamble is paid out in winnings, but that still leaves a not insignificant $6 billion in revenue for clubs and venues in NSW alone.

State governments claim around 25 per cent tax on the machines’ earnings.

In Western Australia, pokies are restricted to casinos only.

In July, the Victorian Government froze the number of pokies in that state until 2042 as part of a suite of reforms.

Australia has the highest gambling losses per capita worldwide, dwarfing casino hub Singapore. An analysis by The Economist early this year revealed Australians lost more per person than any other nation in 2016 — a massive $1292, averaged out across the population, not just gamblers ($11.6 billion in total).

The reason? Pokies. Losses from the gaming machines found in pubs and clubs across the nation were bigger than the total per capita gambling losses of nearly every other country — largely because of Australia’s permissive bet limit rules, which allow punters to lose up to $1498 an hour.

REFORM CONSIDERED

NSW Racing Minister Paul Toole, who oversees Liquor and Gaming NSW, said the government is considering reforms to the scheme which examines the impact of gaming on communities and strategies to address negative impacts. “The government will be considering all the evidence during this process, not just numbers cherrypicked by the Greens,” he told AAP.

Meanwhile, new federal welfare measures announced on Tuesday — which are designed to stop job seekers spending taxpayer dollars on drugs — are to be trialled in neighbouring Canterbury-Bankstown.

They could lead to less money being pumped into the pokies, the federal government argues.

Nsw Poker Machine Tax

Anyone who tests positive for certain illicit drugs will have 80 per cent of their dole payment quarantined in a cashless welfare card.

“We hope (the final 20 per cent) is still used for the intent of which welfare was provided — rather than used at the pokies,” Social Services Minister Christian Porter told reporters

Mr Porter said a similar cashless welfare card trial at Ceduna in South Australia led to a dramatic reduction in the local club’s poker machine revenue.

SYDNEY’S TOP FIVE POKIE PUBS

1 — El Cortez Hotel, Canley Heights

2 — Railway Hotel, Lidcombe

3 — Markets Hotel, Flemington

4 — Eastwood Hotel, Eastwood

5 — Cross Roads Hotel, Casula

The latest figures from Liquor and Gaming NSW show profits at poker machines increased more than 10 per cent compared to the same period last year, despite the lockdown restrictions on pubs and clubs.

Money laundering during the five months of COVID-19 restrictions drove a $305 million increase in poker machine profits, a spike that experts say shows the need for a gambling card.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that between June and October, profits increased from $2.8 billion last year to $3.1 billion and in July, profits were up 23.3 per cent, up from $581 million in July 2019 to $716 million.

Minister for Customer Service Victor Dominello, who has responsibility for the sector, wants to introduce a gambling card to help problem gamblers but also to stamp out money laundering.

Poker machines would become cashless and gamblers required to register and pre-load money to the card, which would operate in a similar way to Opal cards for public transport.

Nsw Poker Machines Covid

Chair of the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority Philip Crawford said money laundering through machines was highlighted in the Bergin inquiry into Crown’s operations in Melbourne.

The gambling regulator blocked Crown Resorts from opening its $2.2 billion Sydney casino next month after a stunning 11th-hour admission to the inquiry that criminals probably laundered dirty cash through the group’s bank accounts.

Mr Crawford said money laundering has links to “drugs, child sexual exploitation, people trafficking and financing terrorism” and criminals were increasingly washing cash in poker machines.

“Poker machines get targeted by criminal elements because they are a simple and cost-effective way of money laundering by washing cash through a machine,” he said.

Nsw Poker Machines Online

“Any reasonable steps that can be taken to reduce money laundering in New South Wales, including the use of technology, should be seriously considered by the government and by industry.”

Calls grow for cashless gambling card in NSW

Mr Crawford said a gambling card would complement the “swipe economy” in which use of cash has been significantly reduced during the pandemic.

“It would greatly assist in the development of strategies to assist problem gamblers and it would significantly reduce the opportunities for money laundering through poker machines,” he said.

“However, technology cannot be used to inappropriately interfere with what is a legal activity, that is, playing poker machines, which for many players does not lead to problem gambling.”

Nsw Poker Machine Revenue

Poker machines are dispersed across 4000 venues in New South Wales and only 1500 of the total 96,000 machines in the state are in the Star Casino.

Chief advocate for the Alliance for Gambling Reform Tim Costello has written to Premier Gladys Berejiklian, urging her cabinet to support a gambling card.

“Every day in NSW pubs and clubs, criminals launder money through poker machines. This is deeply disturbing for many reasons,” Mr Costello’s letter said.

“There is a way to reduce money laundering, which will in turn likely reduce criminality and increase the budget bottom line in NSW.

“The answer is the universal cashless gambling card proposed by Minister Victor Dominello.

“This card has tremendous benefits, both for removing a notorious method of laundering money in NSW and in reducing gambling harm. We urge the cabinet to back it.”

Mr Costello said a gaming card would deliver “an immediate end to money laundering via poker machines in pubs and clubs and a back-up to current proposed self-exclusion identification checks by venues, as a self-excluded gambler’s card would be blocked.”

He said it would also provide a “tool which allows everyone to manage their own gambling spending and facilitate alternative pathways for those who need to reduce or stop their gambling.”