The newly elected New South Wales state government has introduced a bill that, if approved, will ban all political parties from accepting donations from clubs or venues that have gambling machines also known as pokies.
The bill follows up on previous Premier Dominic Perottet’s promise to introduce similar legislation if his party was reelected. While the Liberal party lost power, the newly formed Labor party government has made it clear that closing an existing loophole is one of its main priorities.
In an announcement yesterday, the government said that it had proposed an amendment to the Electoral Funding Act. This would extend the prohibited donors definition to include registered clubs if the club had betting machines of any kind on its properties.
Concerns had been raised earlier in the run up to the election as attention fell on potential conflicts of interest as gambling reforms are set to be discussed in the near future. These reforms include the introduction of mandatory cashless gambling in all NSW pubs and clubs.
At it stands, clubs do not have to state that they are a gambling business if their main source of business is hospitality or the sale of alcohol and a portion or all of their profits from gambling machines are put back into the community.
Speaking of the current state of affairs, NSW Premier Chris Minns said:
“Our bill closes a political loophole. It is common-sense that, if other gambling entities are banned from making political donations, it should apply to all clubs.
“I hope we can attract support from across the parliament for this overdue reform. This bill is an important integrity measure to strengthening the political donation system in our state.”
NSW Special Minister of State John Graham went on to add:
“This bill will ban political parties from accepting financial donations from clubs with gaming machines – it is another election commitment we are seeing through.
“From January 16 this year, NSW Labor took action to not accept donations from clubs with gaming machines. This bill will extend that ban to every state political party.”
According to studies carried out prior to the election, from January 2011 to June 2021, clubs across NSW donated a combined AU$632,000 (€405,866) to the state’s three major political parties.
Ciaran has been working within the Gambling Industry as a deep analyst since 2019. His deep knowledge and understanding of all the gambling regulations, and processes makes him a true asset, and an always valuable point of view for Gambling Industry News, allowing us to cover every topics from a brand new perspective.