NSW sets out gambling reforms as 3.1% of adults face moderate risk and 0.9% high-risk play

New South Wales has outlined a package of reforms aimed at tightening consumer safeguards around gambling, with the state citing the Gambling Survey 2024 and its own plans to change how machines, marketing, and exclusion controls work. For PSPs and high-risk operators, the useful part is simple: more friction, more disclosure, and more mandatory controls tend to show up later in payments, onboarding, and acquisition rules too.

1. The Minns Labor Government says the reforms are meant to reduce gambling-related harm and respond to rising pressure for stricter consumer-protection standards. NSW cited the Gambling Survey 2024, which found that 3.1% of the adult population has experienced moderate risk gambling, while 0.9% already qualified as high-risk gamblers.
2. One of the biggest structural changes is a planned reduction in the number of poker machines in the state, which currently stand at 87,000 units. NSW also said it will increase the forfeiture rate when gaming machine entitlements are traded from one in three to one in two, meaning that for every two entitlements traded, one will be permanently removed.
3. The government is also planning mandatory facial recognition technology across venues, with the goal of stopping people on the statewide exclusion register from accessing and playing without authorization. That register is not yet implemented and will replace a voluntary register; the new system is intended to enforce restrictions once there is enough evidence that an individual is struggling.
4. NSW is beginning to build account-based play, which would require gamblers to create accounts and register before playing rather than gamble anonymously. For operators and payment providers, that usually means a cleaner identity trail, but also more obligations around verification and auditability.
5. On the commercial side, the government will ban VIP programs linked to gaming and prohibit gambling advertising on NSW Government and council-owned assets. Direct marketing will also be narrowed: text messages and phone calls will only be allowed after explicit consent. NSW is also raising transparency requirements by obligating advertisements, influencers, and affiliates to disclose their affiliation with gambling websites, and by requiring ads to better reflect the implied harm that gambling entails.