New South Wales proposes facial recognition, exclusion register, and advertising limits in AU$95.2 million gambling reform package

New South Wales has put player protection at the center of a broad gambling reform package that reaches from venue entry controls to marketing restrictions. For high-risk operators and their payment partners, the important bit is not just the policy language: it is the direction of travel toward tighter monitoring, harder exclusions, and more friction around gambling activity.

1. The NSW government announced its NSW Gaming Reform package on Tuesday, saying it was taking an evidence-based approach to player protection. Led by Chris Minns, the government described the package as a “key election commitment” and said it would combine tougher rules on gambling marketing with stronger protections against gambling harm.
2. The reforms draw on recommendations from the Independent Panel for Gaming Reform, along with wider discussions with stakeholders and the New South Wales community. The government also pointed to the NSW Gambling Survey 2024, which found that 3.1% of the state’s adult population experienced gambling of moderate risk, while 0.9% experienced high-risk gambling.
3. David Harris, the New South Wales minister for gaming and racing, said the package brings together tighter regulation, new technology, and stronger safeguards to reduce gambling harm while supporting the industry. The government said it will invest AU$95.2 million (US$68.1 million) over four years to fund the reforms.
4. The package includes a statewide exclusion register backed by mandatory facial recognition technology at the entrance of all gaming rooms. At present, the voluntary self-exclusion agreement is only available for certain hotels and clubs, and enforcement is largely left to venues and their staff.
5. A third-party exclusion scheme has also been introduced, allowing friends and family to initiate exclusions for people at risk of excessive gambling, alongside venues and the police. The package also aims to reduce poker machines from 87,000 across 2,100 clubs and hotels by increasing the forfeiture rate when gaming machine entitlements are traded from one in three to one in two, while introducing a “sinking cap” as entitlements are removed from circulation.

The government has not set out the legislation timeline yet. It also said it is pushing for account-based play in the future, which would give more visibility over who is playing — the sort of detail that tends to matter when regulators want better traceability and operators want to know what compliance burden is coming next.