NSW Labor’s proposed pokies reform will do little to reduce gambling harm in the state — just ask Aristocrat’s shareholders.
After a bruising summer campaign of pressure to get on board the pokies reform train, NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns came up with a minimalist package of changes yesterday which will do little to reduce the record $7 billion a year lost on the 90,000-plus EGMs across the state.
While the “VIP lounge” signs will disappear from outside pubs, individual pokies clubs can no longer donate to the Labor Party and only $500 in cash can be loaded into a NSW poker machine each time, think about what hasn’t changed.
First, NSW will retain high-intensity $10 maximum bet machines. In Victorian pubs and clubs it is $5.
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