Four of Illawarra's largest clubs have launched a new program asking gamblers to confirm if they are OK to play before they start gaming.
The clubs say at the push of a button, or by scanning a QR code or using an app, gamblers will be put in direct contact with senior management who can reach out and assist the patron in a private and secure way.
Speaking at the launch on Thursday, Collegians Rugby League Football Club chief executive Michael Wilkins said they were proud to be part of the group of leading Illawarra clubs rolling out the Ok2Play? app.
"[it] offers a more robust response to customers that may need assistance with their gambling problem," he said.
The new technology comes at a time of growing tensions between the NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and the club industry.
On Monday, Mr Perrottet said gambling reform was a "major societal issue" in the wake of a recent report by the NSW Crime Commission, which found billions of dollars in "dirty" money was being put through the state's poker machines every year.
Mr Perrottet wants to introduce a mandatory cashless gaming card, which he says is designed to reduce the harm caused by gambling addiction, and will make it more difficult to launder money through pokies.
Labor Leader Chris Minns said he supported a non-compulsory expanded trial of the cashless card and more consultation, but it would not be his focus in the lead-up to the March election.
Wests Illawarra chief executive Danny Munk said the choice for club patrons was between Mr Perrottet's "random promise" or the Labor leader who wanted to discuss the issue.
Mr Munk said Mr Perrottet was making a random promise without proper testing or resourcing of the card and with no understanding of the issue.
However, he said the Labor Opposition leader, by contrast, was someone who actually wanted to discuss the issue with both industry and community to get "the right outcome".
"And I would say that, at the moment, the Labor policy is very constructive," Mr Munk said.
"It's about talking to industry. It's about talking to clubs and pubs in the electorates to see how it will impact and how it will work."
Mr Munk said cashless gaming cards if introduced the wrong way could hurt the very same people the card was seeking to protect.
"By creating a situation where people have to take mandatory cards, quite often those very people that want to put their hands up and ask for help … may have issues, may go underground," he said.
Backing for Perrottet
The Health Services Union, one of the state's largest trade unions, has come out in support of the premier's plans, which puts them at odds with Labor.
HSU NSW Secretary Gerard Hayes said the time for trials and talks had been and passed.
"We see the real-world devastation of pokies every day in the form of domestic violence, relationship breakdown and acute mental health episodes," he said.
"Our members who work in emergency departments and as paramedics witness this social wreckage day in, day out.
"Opt-in trials and other tactics are just tools for delay. What we need is action."
The Alliance for Gambling Reform's spokesman Tim Costello has called for the NSW electoral commission to investigate what it calls a "campaign of dirty tricks" launched by Clubs NSW to stave off reform.
"The clubs' lobby has launched an aggressive and misleading campaign that is nothing more than a scare campaign," he said.
"The scare campaign and bullying of the clubs' lobby can be completely neutered if both major parties in NSW committed to the cashless card."
