Cash-free gaming machines make their debut in New South Wales.

In New South Wales, they are preparing to introduce cashless gambling pokies to fight against money laundering. The state is embarking on a trial of cashless slot machines to assess their effectiveness in curbing money laundering and gambling addiction.

New South Wales hosts around 95,000 gaming machines, primarily located in hotels and pubs outside of casinos. This means pokies generally lack the stringent oversight casinos have. The cashless gaming machines will undergo a 12-week trial, where participants will use a digital wallet to identify themselves, making transactions through their phones.

This trial commences amidst an investigation by the NSW Crime Commission into money laundering issues using pokies. A key problem is the oversight gap. Despite representing just 0.3% of the global population, Australia houses 17% of the world's gaming machines. To better regulate oversight, the Liquor and Gaming authority plans to hold venues accountable. They suspect nearly one billion AUD has been laundered through these machines. slot machines New South Wales MP Justin Field suggests tackling money laundering by setting upper limits on cash deposits into gaming machines. 'It defies logic that NSW machines can accept up to $10,000 in cash,' he shared with SMH. 'Simplifying regulations, like reducing load limits and adopting cashless gaming, could swiftly address these issues.'

Other regions have much stricter limits than NSW’s $10,000 cap. In Victoria and Northern Territories, the limit is $1,000. Queensland and South Australia set it even lower, at $100. In contrast, in NSW, a player might load a machine with $10,000, lose a little, and cash out nearly the same amount.

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