Michael Pascoe: How the pokies lobby comes after politicians

A closer look at clubs’ annual reports show the community won’t be hit hard by gaming reforms, Michael Pascoe writes. Photo: AAP/Reuters

There’s a quick way to tell if an electronic gaming machine policy is good or bad: If ClubsNSW is backing it, it will be bad – simply aimed at maximising the industry winning and people losing.

Thus the 500-machine cashless card “trial” pushed by the gaming lobby and adopted by its Labor clients is crook – a means of delaying reform,  open to fiddling and intrinsically half-arsed.