Berry Uniting Church’s Reverend John Brentnall is calling on community members and local leaders to stand with Wesley Mission in pushing for stronger harm-minimisation measures around poker machines.

Speaking with The Bugle at Kiama Uniting Church on Manning street, Rev Brentnall highlighted staggering statistics on pokies use in NSW.

“The number of machines is ridiculous in NSW. According to 2023 [statistics], there is one poker machine for 88 people,” Rev Brentnall said.

“Since the [NSW state] election [in March 2023], there were 648 extra poker machines from June 2022-23 and 451 machines from June 2023-24.”

Rev Brentnall explained the Wesley Mission’s campaign for poker machine reform has already begun working in parallel with community members and organisations who see the destruction that they can have on individuals and families.

“Quite a few of the organisations that are part of the campaign come into contact with people [and] their gambling addiction has meant they’ve gambled away their house and so forth and they [services] are picking up the pieces,” he said.

“It is a [social] justice issue.”

The Wesley Mission and its supporters are campaigning on five key poker machine reform measures to the NSW government and Rev Brentnall sees one that could be easily implemented.

“Powering down poker machines between midnight and 10am is the low-hanging fruit,” he said.

Roy Morgan Research was commissioned by the NSW Government, which released the peer-reviewed research and evaluation on Electronic Gaming Machine (EGM) Late Night Play on EGM Player Behaviours in 2023.

The research, which was led by Dr Matthew Stevens, produced “purposeful findings” with the Executive Summary conceding there is “the need for greater research to better understand the characteristics, gambling behaviours and participation”.

The other reforms Wesley Mission is campaigning on for ‘put pokies in their place’ is:

1. Implementation of universal cashless gambling with harm reduction measures built-in

2. Fund an independent state-wide self-exclusion register

3. Let communities have a say about poker machines licenses through their local councils

4. Greater transparency around poker machine venue data.

In June, the NSW government welcomed the Auditor General’s Performance Audit into the regulation of gaming machines and highlighted the current government has implemented more comprehensive reforms over the past two years.

A spokesperson for the Minister for Gaming and Racing David Harris MP said that the Government took gambling harm minimisation seriously.

“We are laser-focused on targeting gaming addiction, which can have a devastating impact on the relatively small number of people it impacts, along with their loved ones,” a spokesperson for Harris said.

“The government is delivering evidence-based gaming reform that reduces harm, protects people’s privacy, stops money laundering, and supports local communities and jobs.

“Results from the NSW Gambling Survey 2024 show 0.9% of people in NSW are classified as experiencing high-risk gambling.”

Opposition Leader Mark Speakman MP called out government for lack of action in protecting those vulnerable to poker machines.

“While NSW families are losing more than a million dollars every single hour on poker machines, Chris Minns still won’t commit to real reform,” Speakman said.

“The Minns Labor government is hooked on gambling revenue and has no plan to protect our communities.

“Labor’s refusal leaves families carrying the cost.”

In the 2024-25 budget, part of the measures was the $10 million funding injection to reduce gambling harm across NSW.

In NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey’s 2025-26 NSW Budget speech, there is no mention of any direct funding to harm minimisation for poker machines.

Clubs NSW, which is the representative body for the clubs across the state, commissioned Urbis - a social policy and research organisation - to evaluate the economic and social impact of clubs.

Urbis found that clubs in NSW provided $9 billion per annum of social and economic contribution, and they are also significant facilitators of employment providing 75,500 jobs and contribute more than $1.2 billion in taxes.

According to NSW government data, during the period of 1 December 2024 to 28 February 2025, there were 996 clubs registered with poker machines, but this does not include establishments with a gambling license. 

The government’s vision for NSW is to be working towards zero gambling harm in 2027.