The most profitable clubs in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) face higher taxes on poker machine earnings, and the state has pledged to “significantly reduce” its machine numbers over 10 years, under a motion passed unanimously at the ruling Labor party’s state conference on Sunday, July 5th.
Clubs earning more than AU$20 million ($13.1 million) in profits from gaming machines would pay more tax under the plan, which also includes a moratorium on licenses for new machines, according to The Guardian, which first reported the development.
Premier Chris Minns will take the tougher stance to the state election next March, after being pushed to adopt the approach by the party’s left, amid surging profits for operators and accusations of inaction on reform.
The plan would see 50 percent of machines removed from operation when transferred between venues. The original proposal from Darcy Byrne, the Labor left mayor of Sydney’s inner west, had called for half of NSW’s 90,000 poker machines to be scrapped.
The motion also commits to mandatory facial recognition in every gaming room to support a statewide exclusion register, policies the government is understood to be already developing.
Minns is not compelled to legislate the policies, though Labor sources said his government had been indirectly involved in negotiations, brokered by Unions NSW Secretary Mark Morey. NSW Gaming Minister David Harris spoke in favor of the motion.
“Momentum for real reform of poker machine harm is becoming unstoppable,” Byrne said, telling delegates that “the private interests of the poker machine lobby have trumped the public interest of preventing addiction and harm.”
