Could pokies in NSW be switched off at midnight?

NSW has 87,000 pokie machines, and in the last quarter, residents lost $2.2 billion playing.

While overall gambling is down, problem gamblers are rising sharply, making up 2.9% of the population. And it’s mostly younger people.

Across Australia, it’s rare to see Liberals backing the Greens or Nationals siding with Labor, but in NSW, rampant gambling is flipping parliament on its head.

Last month, Greens MP Cate Faehrmann put forward a bill to the NSW upper house that would force pubs across the state to turn off their pokies at midnight.

Clubs and pubs are already not meant to be running poker machines 24/7.

They’re allowed to because of various exemptions and loopholes. For example: if they operate in an area frequented by tourists, or if there are other hospitality venues in the area with extended hours.

Currently, the pokies shutdown period for venues is 4am - 10am.

North Shore MP Felicity Wilson is one of the voices from within the NSW Liberal party who has suggested the Coalition support this bill.

“There’s no guardrails, at the moment, for people who have a problem. No genuine guardrails,” Wilson told the North Shore Lorikeet. “This notion of ‘should Liberals, Nationals, vote with the Greens… I don’t think our community wants us to write off another party automatically”

“There should be bipartisan support for reducing gambling harm.”

Some opposition to this bill within the NSW Coalition comes from rural representatives, particularly members of the National party, who are concerned about the impact on local businesses.

Historically, members of the National Party in NSW have been against gambling reforms, and Labor Premier Chris Minns said last month he would be against the bill because of potential impacts to the economy.

Would tightening restrictions on pokies harm NSW businesses? To put it bluntly: no.

That’s according to Reverend Stu Cameron, the CEO of not-for-profit Wesley Mission, one of the key organisations researching gambling harm and pushing for gambling reform.

“For every dollar of taxation revenue that’s earned it's at least five times that amount in cost to the economy when it comes to lost productivity, crime, and mental health issues,” said Cameron.

A vote on Faehrmann’s bill will take place in the final sitting period of the year.

Reverend Stu Cameron said gambling reform in the state had been ignored for more than six decades.

“It’s been a no-go zone for successive governments, whether its Coalition or Labor… it was really coming into the last election… it was the Coalition’s commitment to reform that really opened up the conversation in a way that hadn’t been possible before.”

This story was originally published in the North Shore Lorikeet.