Tens of thousands of people in NSW experience harm caused by gambling each year , devastating individuals and families across NSW causing housing insecurity, homelessness, food insecurity, relationship breakdown, domestic violence and suicide.
Successive governments have allowed gambling to invade all parts of life. Pubs and clubs across the state are jammed full of poker machines, often in areas that can least afford it.
The powerful gambling lobby wields enormous influence on the major parties via political donations made by the more than 1,000 local clubs across the state. The leaders of the Liberal, National and Labor parties also enter into agreements with ClubsNSW before each election which ties the hands of any future Government to raise gambling taxes or to take genuine action to reduce gambling harm.
The Greens will stand up to the powerful gambling industry with a plan to pull the pin on pokies in NSW.
The Greens will:
- Make pubs and clubs pay for the harm they’ve caused with a pokies ‘super tax’ and reparation fund for affected communities.
- Phase out poker machines from pubs in 5 years and clubs in 10 years
- Introduce a mandatory cashless gambling card
- Reduce gambling harms with $1 bet limits, midnight to midday pokies curfews and prohibiting addictive features and advertising
- Reduce the social costs of pokies to NSW by $87 billion over ten years
- End the grip of the gambling industry on our democracy by prohibiting gambling donations