Pundits calling for the unadulterated application of strict reforms on gaming machines are crying foul over the looming hurdles of the NSW cashless trial, conveniently ignoring nuance and conflating numbers to further sensationalise gambling.
Answering public pressure in the lead-up to the 2023 election, the Minns government promised a trial of a system to use a gaming card or digital wallet (aka ‘cashless’), which found a surplus of venues volunteer to participate.
An independent panel of 16 people was assembled to oversee the trial, due to report its findings by 30 November. A draft list of recommendations has reportedly been collated, but decisions are not yet unanimous and talks continue.
The initiative, which reflects similar anti-gaming policies manifesting in several states, is largely a politically motivated response to the ongoing expenditure figures generated by the highly regulated EGM operators, which saw Australians spend approximately $15.9 billion on the machines in 2023/24 (NSW – 30 November 2023, $8,129,629,331; Queensland – July 2024, $3,430,400,983; Victoria – July 2024, $3,030,026,224; South Australia – July 2024, $955,796,238; ACT – July 2024, $186,545,683; Tasmania – FY24, $186,300,000).
Many question if governments are motivated to make concerted moves to reduce these numbers, given that the tax department collects on average 31 cents for every $1 spent on poker machines. This amounted to roughly $9 billion collected by state and territory governments in FY23, representing about eight per cent of total tax revenue.
By contrast, governments collect an average of just 11 cents for every $1 spent on online or ‘interactive’ betting.
A preceding trial of cashless gaming was undertaken at Wests Newcastle, but this was aborted as it neared completion when it was hacked, demonstrating some of the challenges involved in the tech-based concept.
The broader statewide test began but was quickly plagued by problems, said to have been hampered by poor data and technology decisions taking months to finalise.
Some venues that signed on found themselves dropping out due to the failings and concerns around the security of data, and many had criticism as a September budget estimates hearing revealed only 14 participating venues remained out of 28, and only 32 players were still using the system, out of a poignantly lacklustre 243 people who signed on at the beginning.
Addressing the pitfalls, Gaming Minister David Harris told the committee that despite the reduction, the trial could still produce valuable insights and information that was “really useful”. A spokesperson for the NSW government said they await and “will thoroughly consider” the panel’s report and findings, noting the complex nature of the reform, which was explained is “the very reason why” a trial is being conducted first.
HARDER THAN IT LOOKS
While critics of legal gaming see sweeping reforms as a panacea for reducing harm, little consideration is given to the logistical challenges or modern market realities. Although Sydney’s two casinos were due to transition to a mandatory cashless system this year, the NSW government has been forced to grant an extension until October 2025, in “recognition of the practical difficulties” of instigating the technology.
An example of the bias is seen in recent media denouncing poker machines as accounting for “vastly more” than other betting, amounting to “more than 65 per cent of the state’s annual gambling losses, on average”.
The Second National Study of interactive gambling in Australia reports that lotteries actually hold the lion’s share as the most popular activity, with 41.5 per cent, streaks ahead of race betting (16.8pc), EGMs (16.4pc), instant scratch tickets (15.7pc), sports betting (9.6pc), and Keno (7.7pc).
The report, by Gambling Research Australia, also found via National Telephone Survey that gambling participation (all modes) decreased from 64.3 per cent in 2010/11 to an estimated 56.9 per cent in 2019.
Yet the primary finding of the Interactive gambling study estimated interactive gambling has more than doubled in the past eight years and now includes nearly one-third of all gamblers, amounting to 17.5 per cent of the Australian adult population. It is found to be most popular amongst men aged 20-49 years.
More recently, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs Report in 2023, titled You Win some and Lose More, focused its inquiry on whether regulations around online gambling and gambling advertising is “fit for purpose and meeting community expectations”.
This is supported by the Grattan Institute’s ‘A Better Bet’ report, published in September, which explains how the Commonwealth Government is pondering online gambling and sports betting advertising. The Institute pronounces that initiatives to reduce gambling harm have relied too much on individual responsibility and thus “failed to protect” Australians from gambling harm.
It suggests governments should take a “public health approach” to preventing gambling harm rather than leaving responsibility in the hands of individuals.
More pragmatically, South Australia has adopted a scheme enabling people to self-exclude from venues such as pubs and casinos, as well as from racing and lotteries. It also incorporates an option for friends or family members to intervene and force an exclusion. NSW is understood to be developing a similar scheme, and industry in Victoria are said to be in favour of this rather than the mandatory carded system being explored.
But while gaming operators and regulators work toward a viable solution, click-grabbing media dismisses the complexity with dismissive pronouncement that the government is considering “shelving” the forced introduction of a cashless carded system, after it was “set up to fail”.
