New South Wales faces a troubling fiscal reality: the government is increasingly addicted to revenue that flows directly from citizen suffering. With nearly $9.3 billion lost on poker machines in 2025, the highest annual loss ever recorded in the state, the numbers have grown so large they stop sounding real. Put another way, NSW residents lose over $24 million every day to pokies, more than $1 million an hour. The figure dwarfs the cost of infrastructure projects most people could name. This compares with losses of $8.6 billion in 2024, an 8 per cent increase year-on-year.
The scale matters because it reveals a government caught between two contradictions. On one hand, NSW is acutely aware of gambling harm. An independent panel reviewed gambling reform and handed recommendations to the Minns government. It has been 478 days since the Minns government received the report, and silence has followed. On the other hand, the government has become financially reliant on the misery these machines generate. In the 2025-26 financial year alone, the government is budgeting for $2.61 billion in poker machine taxes. This is not incidental revenue. It is core to the budget strategy.
The harm is not randomly distributed. Despite making up only 16.5 per cent of Sydney's population, just three local government areas in the west—Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Cumberland—account for one-third of all Sydney's gambling losses. Canterbury-Bankstown recorded $202.7 million in losses in Q3 2025, Fairfield $187.7 million and Cumberland $140.4 million. These are not affluent suburbs where a lost bet dents a discretionary budget. High levels of socio-economic disadvantage are a significant risk factor for gambling-related harm, which continues to play out in Western Sydney where the frontlines of the gambling harm epidemic mirror its most disadvantaged local areas.
Evidence from research is stark. In western suburbs around Sunshine, the annual average loss per adult on poker machines was $1,358, compared to $400 for adults in eastern suburbs around Box Hill. These are not lifestyle choices that feel good when losses mount. In eastern suburbs, one gambler reported their family went without repairing the dishwasher for six months, while in western suburbs, several said gambling losses meant they literally could not afford food for their children.
The economic argument presented in favour of inaction is familiar: the industry supports jobs, venues depend on gaming revenue for their business models, and governments need the tax take. But the numbers tell a different story about trade-offs. For every dollar made in poker machine tax, evidence shows multiple dollars are lost in healthcare, emergency relief, housing support and other costs. With poker machine losses in NSW running 2.8 times those of Victoria, the total cost of gambling harm caused by pokies in NSW would be far more than $7 billion. This is not sound fiscal management. It is borrowing against human suffering to fund current spending.
Reform advocates point to straightforward interventions backed by evidence. Wesley Mission is calling for mandatory poker machine shutdowns from midnight to 10am, a cashless gambling card with enforceable harm reduction limits, and tighter caps on machine numbers in high-risk communities. Research shows that if pokies are not available, people typically will not substitute them with other harmful forms of gambling, pointing to the role of availability of dangerous gambling products in gambling harm rather than personal characteristics.
Yet the government holds back. When asked how gambling harm is being reduced when revenue from taxes on pokies losses is going up, Treasurer Daniel Mookhey replied that more would be known after cashless gaming trials reach their conclusion. Trials are valuable, but they are not action. And record-level gambling losses are no longer an anomaly but an entrenched pattern across NSW.
The fiscal responsibility argument cuts both ways. Yes, governments need revenue. But there are other ways to raise it that do not destroy the financial stability of families in Sydney's west. The economics do not stack up. The increasing reliance on poker machine taxes hurts rather than helps the budget when you account for the full social and economic cost. At some point, a government that claims to serve all Australians fairly must recognise that some communities are now seeing average losses of more than $3,200 per person annually. That is not a policy failure you can delay with trials. That is a public health crisis that demands urgent, proportionate action.