As the Minns Government faces growing criticism from anti-gambling advocates, new research from Macquarie University argues NSW must move beyond piecemeal policies and adopt a more ambitious blueprint for reducing gambling harm.
Published in the UNSW Law Journal , the research suggests the Minns Government's narrow focus on cashless gaming is failing to address harmful gambling, instead proposing a package of reforms that harnesses smart technology, stronger regulation, and increased community decision-making.
Associate Professor at Macquarie Law School, Shireen Morris, worries the NSW government has become too financially dependent on harmful gambling, which creates perverse incentives to continue the exploitation. She is particularly concerned by the proliferation of electronic gaming machines (EGMs) in lower socio-economic areas because of their association with high levels of harm.
"Along with the gambling industry, the NSW government extracts a massive financial benefit from gambling," says Associate Professor Morris.
"The June 2026 budget projects that gambling taxes will climb from $3.8 billion in 2025-26 to $4.7 billion by 2029-30. Gaming machine tax generated almost $2.3 billion in 2023–24, making it the fourth-largest source of state tax revenue. This creates perverse incentives encouraging governments to keep extracting gambling losses from the poorest Australians. It helps explain why reform is so difficult.
"Recent decisions of the Labor Party State Conference to take more action on pokies reform are welcome, but we can go further. There is an opportunity here for NSW to lead the way with some innovative thinking."
Drawing on successful reforms in other jurisdictions, the researchers recommend NSW could progressively implement:
- mandatory digital pre-commitments enabling players to set clear time and spend limits;
- a single statewide self-exclusion register;
- reduced operating hours for poker machines;
- stronger community decision-making powers over whether machine numbers can expand locally, and whether pokies should be wound back;
- tailored mechanisms to protect low-income earners from gambling harm.
The proposed reforms offer a coherent policy framework for New South Wales to trial.
The research findings suggest that existing programs such as Local Impact Assessments, ClubGRANTS and self-exclusion schemes have largely failed to deliver meaningful reductions in gambling harm – reducing industry accountability without addressing the underlying drivers of losses.
"Our pokies reform ambition needs to be scaled up to make serious change," Associate Professor Morris says.
"Australia should be a reform leader, not the world leader in gambling exploitation. It is beyond embarrassing that Australians lose more money per capita to gambling than anywhere in the world. What an egregious title for our nation."
