Only Nevada - home to casino-lined Las Vegas - has more gaming machines than NSW with nearly 90,000 across the state, about 35 per cent of the worldwide figure.Â
A survey shows public trust in the NSW government to stand up to the gambling industry has fallen off a cliff, dropping from 35 per cent in May 2025 to 16 per cent in September 2026.
Half of the 700 respondents surveyed believed the gambling lobby has too much influence on state politics, according to the Wesley Mission-commissioned poll published on Tuesday.
Independent MP Alex Greenwich said momentum needed to build ahead of the 2027 elections after gambling reform featured heavily as a lightning-rod issue taken up by the former coalition government in the 2023 elections.
"Not only the NSW government, but the NSW parliament has failed when it has come to meaningful action on gambling reform this term, for an issue that was so high level at the last election," he told AAP.
"This harm cannot go on."
A cashless gaming card was promised by former premier Dominic Perrottet, but more modest reforms have been ushered in under Premier Chris Minns.
They include pulling the plug on poker machines from 4am to 10am - although advocates say most harm is caused in earlier hours.
The Put Pokies in their Place campaign, coinciding with Gamble Aware week, wants machines to be shut between midnight and 10am.
Mr Greenwich supported the proposal and said pokies were one of the biggest drains on the night-time economy.
A landmark Crime Commission report in 2022 found $95 billion of illicit proceeds were funnelled through electronic gaming machines in NSW.
For the son of Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees, artist and activist Nelson Nghe recounted the pain of seeing his father squandering the family's income to poker machines which he termed "hurt machines".
He blamed local pubs and clubs for exploiting disadvantaged, mostly migrant communities in western Sydney.
"House always wins and the home always loses," he said.
"We did not ask to have the majority of Australia's hurt machines here in our own backyards."
Profits hit all-time highs in 2025 in NSW with punters losing $9.3 billion, mostly in southwestern Sydney.
Wesley Mission chief executive Stu Cameron said the reform coalition was meeting with dozens of MPs to lobby for urgent changes such as an independent statewide exclusion register and for money to be channelled back to local communities.
"They (pokies) are like reverse ATMs, just sucking money out of the community," he said in NSW parliament at the launch of the campaign.
National Gambling Helpline 1800 858 858
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