Wesley Mission CEO Reverend Stu Cameron has urged the NSW Government to consider “immediate and proportionate” gambling reforms after the Christian charity projected NSW poker machine losses would reach $10 billion in 2026.
The analysis follows the release of new NSW Government data showing $2.37 billion was lost on poker machines in the first quarter of 2026 – a 9.4 per cent increase on the same period in 2025 and the highest year-on-year growth in first-quarter poker machine losses since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The data also shows gambling losses remain concentrated in the same communities, with Canterbury-Bankstown recording almost $200 million in losses, alongside Fairfield and Cumberland.
Several regional centres also reported losses approaching $100 million, including the Central Coast, Wollongong and Newcastle.
Rev Cameron said the increase in losses, combined with ongoing cost-of-living pressures, had further entrenched gambling harm across the community.
“NSW families are tightening their belts, often doing without essentials, while poker machine losses are rising more than twice as fast as inflation,” he said.
“There seem to be only three certainties in NSW right now: death, taxes and spiralling poker machine losses.”
He called on the NSW Government to implement stronger harm-reduction measures, including a statewide shutdown of poker machines between midnight and 10am.
“Nothing good happens on a poker machine at 3am,” he said.
“Not only would these measures reduce harm, they would also help prevent it.”
