The battle over pokies comes to premier’s backyard

Labor councillors in Chris Minns’ electorate of Kogarah have urged the state government to do more to address the billions spent on pokies each year by introducing mandatory cashless gaming and stronger caps on the number of machines.

The intervention from councillors, including the party’s candidate for the marginal seat of Oatley, has come to light after The Sydney Morning Herald revealed on Monday that Minns will face a concerted internal push to significantly reduce the number of poker machines in NSW at the state conference in July. Senior figures from left and right factions say the government has not done enough to overhaul gambling laws during its first term.

The premier has deflected those calls, saying on Monday that while he was “sorry” poker machines had become so common, it would be prohibitively expensive to compensate the pubs and clubs industry if there was a major reduction.

“I just caution against there being supposed buckets of money to compensate clubs if we were going to drive them out of business,” he said.

“We’ve inherited a situation where they are ubiquitous in our communities, and I’m very sorry for that.

“If we were starting from scratch, there’s no way we would deploy 90,000 total machines in suburbs across Sydney and NSW.”

But calls for reform are unlikely to abate. A string of revelations, including that gamblers in NSW lost a record $9.3 billion playing pokies in 2025, and the government’s laggard response to the recommendations of its own expert panel on cashless gaming, have reignited an issue that dogged Labor in the lead-up to the last election.

In a motion passed unanimously by Georges River Council – which overlaps with part of Minns’ seat of Kogarah – councillors said last month the staggering figures lost on pokies were “not abstract figures, but represent real harm to individuals, families and communities”.

The motion, moved by former Labor councillor turned independent Kathryn Landsberry, noted public concern that “the pace and scale of reform” by the government since its election in 2023 “has not matched the severity of the problem”.

It called on the government to introduce a mandatory, universal cashless gaming card, reduced operating hours for poker machines and stronger caps on the number of machines.

Labor councillors, including the party’s recently announced candidate in the seat of Oatley, Elaina Anzellotti, attempted to move an amendment noting reforms made by the government including reducing the number of poker machine entitlements by about 3000 and reducing cash input limits. When it was defeated, they did not oppose the original motion.

“We just need to acknowledge there have been some reforms,” Anzellotti said. “They are a work in progress.”

Minns on Monday conceded the government needed to do more.

“The question is, what’s the best way of ensuring that we can have harm minimisation in our communities, whilst at the same time there’s about 130,000 people that are employed in the sector, and they’re well-paid jobs, and obviously families rely on them,” he said.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.