It’s 6.15am in one of Sydney’s biggest clubs, and a young mother of two is sitting alone, exhausted and terrified over how much cash she has just blown on the flashing machine in front of her. She will never see that money again – nor the $5000 she also spent the night before while the rest of the city slept.
This scenario, in which thousands of addicts squander millions of dollars between 4am and 10am when poker machines are meant to be switched off, will finally end next week when at least 659 pubs and clubs are stripped of their sweetheart deals to extend gaming into the early hours.
The move is a rare bright spot in an area of reform dogged by fierce lobbying, false starts and political backflips, and it gives the Minns government something good to clutch on to days after new data revealed punters lost a record $9.3 billion on NSW poker machines last year.
A damning review last year found 673 clubs and pubs – or 20 per cent of all venues with poker machines – had been granted an exemption to the mandatory six-hour shutdown period even though many are pulling in massive revenue.
Venues could gain exemptions if they operated in an area frequented by tourists or other hospitality venues with extended hours, if they had a consistent history of early opening before the legislation was introduced in 1997, or if they met financial hardship criteria.
The government promised to axe the perks but gave venues the opportunity to apply to keep them. That lifeline stoked fears that many would retain their deals despite the government’s tough talk towards the end of last year.
However, the outcome is much stronger than expected: 62 venues applied to keep their exemptions and of 48 applications assessed so far, all have been revoked.
Hundreds more operators didn’t bother trying to overturn the change. In total, 659 venues have now had their exemptions revoked by Liquor and Gaming NSW or the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority. Thirteen venues remain under assessment, with a decision due before March 31.
“These changes are expected to prevent and reduce gambling harm,” Gaming and Racing Minister David Harris said. “It was clear these variations enabling about 20 per cent of clubs and pubs with gaming machines to operate outside the mandated hours – some of which were more than 20 years old – were no longer fit for purpose.”
The arrangements were particularly perverse given the mountain of research showing problem gamblers do the most damage in the early hours.
Harris said the government would pursue “evidence-based reforms” to strike a balance between addressing gambling harm “while supporting sustainable development of an industry that employs more than 150,000 people”.
Three of the 10 most profitable clubs in NSW by gaming revenue were operating with extended trading hours after gaining a hardship exemption.
While removing the exemptions has been welcomed by gambling reform advocates, the new system still places NSW behind some other states on operating hours. Half of all pubs and clubs in Queensland with poker machines cease trading by midnight.
Harris and Premier Chris Minns are yet to respond to a government-commissioned independent panel on gambling reform that produced a series of harm-minimisation recommendations in December 2024.
It has also not given a firm answer on whether it would implement cashless gaming, which the NSW Crime Commission has said is essential to reduce the millions of dollars in dirty cash being laundered at pubs and clubs each year.
On Monday, Minns appeared to confirm the government would not proceed with cashless gaming.
“We’re looking at all potential options, but I’m not prepared to sign up to that remedy because I’m not convinced it is a remedy,” he told ABC 702. He later told reporters that he hadn’t yet ruled it out.
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Bevan Shields was editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and is now a senior writer.Connect via X or email.