After the New South Wales election, some expert advice for the new Government

Significant action on gambling reform

The incoming Minns Government (and it’s not yet clear whether it will have a majority) have a mandate for change in many critical policy areas, but they should not assume business as usual or fiddling around the edges on gambling reform is in their electoral interests or in the interests of the people of NSW who they have been elected to serve.

Many MPs now know that supporting meaningful gambling reform can be an election winner. Many of the candidates who stood on a platform of gambling reform increased their winning margins significantly.

While the ALP proposed a trial of cashless gambling on 500 of the state’s 90,000 poker machines, it doesn’t mean that they will be able to delay the need for sweeping gambling reform in NSW – especially with the independents Alex Grenwich, Greg Piper, Joe McGirr and Helen Dalton determined to keep gambling reform high on the priority list in their negotiations with government.

Serving NSW well means taking real action to reduce the unacceptably high toll gambling is taking on individuals, families, communities and workplaces right across NSW.

At the very least, given the results in this election, we expect the cashless gambling card will continue to be strongly pushed in both the lower and upper houses of the NSW Parliament.

With NSW the centre of Australia’s title as the world’s biggest gambling losers by more than 40 percent on poker machines than any country in the world, much more needs to be done to reduce the level of gambling harm.

See Bennett’s pre-election article here.