NSW Labor will reduce the amount of poker machines across the state, introduce a cash input limit of $500 and ban "VIP lounge" signs if elected in March.
Today the opposition unveiled its gambling reform policy in response to the NSW Crime Commission report last year which found money was being laundered through poker machines across the state.
There are over 95,000 "pokie" machines in NSW — a number only beaten by Nevada in the US.
Gambling reform has become a major election issue for the major parties, with the government's promise to roll out a mandatory gaming card attracting praise from unions, and criticism from the lobby group Clubs NSW.
The opposition has committed to a trial of cashless gaming — not a full rollout — which would run for 12 months from July 1 and include at least 500 machines in both high-use metro areas and the regions.
It would be overseen by an independent panel made up of representatives from law enforcement, gambling and health and would be covered by the $100 million penalty paid by Star Casino last year.
Opposition leader Chris Minns said a trial was critical to assess how clubs and pubs could afford the new cashless technology without any impact on the 127,000 people employed by the industry.
This is despite the Crime Commission's key recommendation for a mandatory cashless gaming card.
"I said from the outset this is a complicated policy area and we needed an evidenced based approach to make sure any measures we introduced would work and wouldn't have any unintended consequences," Mr Minns said.
Labor's gaming reform package would also ban political parties from accepting financial donations from clubs who have gaming machines.
"Labor is leading the way — from today Labor will not accept donations from clubs with gaming machines. The Liberals and Nationals should make the same commitment. And if we win — it'll be law," Mr Minns said.
The party has also pledged to ban signage such as "VIP Lounge" which promotes areas where people can use gaming machines, from all venues.
Although gambling-related signs are already illegal, many venues skirt this law by promoting "VIP Lounges" as code for poker machines.
On top of this, Labor said from July 1 it would reduce cash feed-in limits for pokies to $500, a tenfold reduction from the current limit of $5,000.
This would firstly be enforced on newer machines, where changes can be made more rapidly, and then on existing older machines where possible.
NSW has the highest "load up" limit in the country with older machines allowing players to load up to $10,000 at once.
Labor has also proposed to reduce the number of machines across the state by changing the way venues trade pokie machines.
Currently any pub or club seeking to increase their machines must get those machines from other venues, but any transfer attracts a compulsory forfeiture of one machine for every three traded.
Labor's policy would make this one for every two, consequently accelerating the removal of poker machines from the system.
"If a pub purchases 20 machines from another pub, they will have to kill 10 of those machines," Mr Minns said.
NSW Labor has vowed to introduce "responsible gaming officers" for venues with more than 20 pokie machines, as well as third party exclusion.
Such an exclusion would mean family members and police could apply to have someone banned from a gaming venue.
Premier Dominic Perrottet said the government was currently finalising its cashless gaming policy and would have more details to announce soon.
"I've made this very clear ... we are going to cashless pokie machines in NSW," he said this morning.
