New figures showing NSW residents lost a record $4.75 billion on poker machines in just six months are more proof that the Minns Government has gone soft on tackling gambling harm, says Greens MP and gambling harm reduction spokesperson Cate Faehrmann.
Analysis of the latest NSW gaming machine data by Wesley Mission shows NSW residents lost a record $2.38 billion on poker machines during the June quarter, bringing total losses for the first half of 2026 to an unprecedented $4.75 billion. The figures amount to more than $26 million lost every day and more than $1 million every hour.
‘The Minns Government keeps announcing gambling reforms, but the only thing going up is the amount of money people are losing,’ said Cate Faehrmann.
‘These staggering figures are the real report card on Labor’s gambling policies, and they show the government is failing. While people are struggling to pay rent, mortgages, power bills and groceries, poker machine operators are taking more than $26 million a day out of communities across NSW.
‘The government talks about reform while clubs and pubs continue making billions from addiction and financial distress.’
Concentrated, rising harm
The data shows that losses in the first six months of 2026 were more than $311 million higher than the same period last year with the most harm concentrated in the same communities year after year, with Canterbury-Bankstown, Fairfield and Cumberland recording the highest losses in metropolitan Sydney, while the Central Coast, Newcastle and Wollongong among the hardest-hit regional areas.
‘After three years in government, Labor is still refusing to implement the evidence-based reforms experts have recommended,’ said Ms Faehrmann. ‘Optional card-based play is a very different thing to mandatory cashless gambling. Reviewing shutdown periods is not the same thing as reducing operating hours.
‘The gambling industry understands exactly what this government’s approach means and they love it: more reviews, more delays and more record losses.
‘NSW is heading towards $10 billion a year in poker machine losses. The question for Chris Minns is simple: how much more harm is he prepared to tolerate before he stands up to the gambling lobby?’
Ms Faehrmann renewed the Greens’ call for mandatory cashless gambling and harm reduction settings, a midnight-to-10am shutdown of poker machines and a plan to significantly reduce poker machine numbers across NSW.
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