NSW Unveils Broad Gambling Reforms With Facial Recognition and Ad Bans
The package adds a statewide exclusion register, third-party bans and tighter marketing rules, backed by $95.2 million over four years.
New South Wales has unveiled a wide gambling reform package that targets both harm reduction and marketing limits. The plan covers a statewide exclusion register, mandatory facial recognition at gaming-room entrances, third-party exclusions, tighter ad rules, a ban on VIP gaming programs, and a push toward account-based play.
According to a NSW government ministerial release, the package was presented as delivering on a key election commitment and was shaped by the state’s Independent Panel for Gaming Reform, along with input from industry, harm minimisation groups, stakeholders and privacy experts. The government also said it is responding to findings in several reports, including the Roadmap for Gaming Reform and a Crime Commission inquiry into money laundering through electronic gaming machines in hotels and clubs.
The state said it will invest $95.2 million over four years to implement the changes, with an extra $20 million going to the Responsible Gambling Fund over the next two years. The release cited the NSW Gambling Survey 2024, which found 3.1% of adults were experiencing moderate-risk gambling and 0.9% were experiencing high-risk gambling.
The biggest structural change is the statewide exclusion register. It is meant to replace a fragmented system where self-exclusion was handled venue by venue and enforcement often depended on staff memory and manual checks.
Under the new plan, exclusions will be backed by mandatory facial recognition at the entry to gaming rooms. The register will cover every hotel and club with gaming machines, and the system is due to be introduced in 2028.
A third-party exclusion scheme will also be added. That gives family members, friends, venues and police more ways to trigger exclusions for people considered at risk, including cases linked to criminal activity.
The package also aims to shrink the machine footprint over time. NSW currently has about 87,000 poker machines across 2,100 clubs and hotels, and the forfeiture rate when gaming machine entitlements are traded will rise from one in three to one in two, so one entitlement is removed for every two that change hands.
A sinking cap will lower the statewide ceiling on entitlements as they are withdrawn from circulation. The government said it is also working toward account-based play and will upgrade the Central Monitoring System over the next two years to support that shift, while acknowledging that much of the current machine infrastructure still relies on legacy technology.
Marketing rules are being tightened too. Gambling advertising will no longer be allowed on NSW government or local council-owned assets, betting service providers will need express consent before direct marketing by phone, email or text, and affiliates and influencers will face new transparency rules with commission limits on higher-risk products. The package also bans VIP programs tied to gaming and promises a state strategy to address online gambling harm, alongside tougher penalties for illegal operators.
