The key election promise NSW Labor has walked away from

The government has previously lowered the cap on poker machine entitlements by 3000, but advice from the expert panel’s three-person executive committee warned following through on the promise would cost about $60 million and only remove a relatively small share of the overall poker machine entitlements.

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The Coalition has seized on the decision to walk away from the commitment as evidence Labor was not serious about gambling reform. Opposition MP Chris Rath accused Mookhey of “telling porkies on pokies”.

Before the election, Labor promised to commission an expert panel to conduct a trial into cashless gaming technology. The trial, which was plagued by issues and which some participants claim was set up to fail, produced a report in November titled Roadmap for Gaming Reform.

The report has yet to be released, but The Sydney Morning Herald has previously reported that it recommended a shift to “account-based” gaming that would remove anonymous gambling.

The government has yet to commit to its recommendations. However, in defending the decision to walk away from the 9500 machine reduction on Wednesday, Mookhey suggested ignoring the panel would be a breach of the government’s election promise.

“It would be a break of our promise if we were to commission an independent panel and ignore their views,” he said.

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