New South Wales premier criticised over response to cashless pokies trial
Advocacy groups and experts accuse Chris Minns of misrepresenting key findings
Australia.- New South Wales premier Chris Minns has been criticised for describing the state’s cashless gambling trial as “largely ineffective” and suggesting that his government may abandon the policy. Advocacy groups and social services organisations accuse Minns of misrepresenting the goals and outcomes of the trial.
The pilot, initiated in early 2024, was one of the responses to a 2022 NSW Crime Commission report on in criminal proceeds passing through the state’s 90,000 gaming machines. Designed to test whether cashless technology could track transactions and reduce gambling-related harm, the trial involved just 14 “genuine and active” participants.
A report from a government-appointed independent panel concluded that the technology had been successful and recommended that cashless gambling become mandatory by 2028. However, Premier Minns dismissed the results last week, citing high costs and limited impact on problem gambling.
“It hasn’t worked,” Minns said. “It’s not driven down the incidents of problem gambling… the cost of compliance is astronomical. I can’t really justify spending hundreds of millions when we need new public schools and transport.”
Charity Wesley Mission general manager Jim Wackett said: “The trial was never about changing people’s behaviour. It was about seeing if the technology worked – and it did. This is about accountability, transparency, and preventing harm. You don’t throw away the roadmap just because the first step was hard.”
