NSW cashless cards to be pokies reform 'game changer'

Cashless cards for poker machines will be a game changer in reducing gambling harm, advocates say as NSW prepares to introduce a statewide trial in the wake of damning new data.

The latest official half-yearly data shows gamers are losing more than $23 million every day and statewide losses in pubs and clubs totalled $4.26 billion in late 2022, generating $1.18 billion in tax.

The data, covering June to November in clubs and July to December in pubs, is the equivalent to about $1000 for every man, woman and child in NSW, according to Wesley Mission.

"That's money that really should have been helping families with the cost of living crisis but instead has gone to propping up a harmful and predatory industry," Wesley Mission general manager Jim Wackett told AAP. 

"It's money that could have been spent in local small businesses or paying mortgages but has disappeared from the local economy and gone straight into the coffers of the gambling industry." 

Labor Premier Chris Minns has promised a cashless card trial on 500 machines to be undertaken from July 1 and other harm reduction measures including a plan to slash the number of machines statewide, a ban on political donations from clubs that run pokies and cash feed-in limits.

Mr Wackett said while some of the proposals were admirable a trial would not necessarily be productive.

"The reality is that poker machines are going cashless. It's not a question of if it's a question of when," he said. 

The Christian community organisation head described cashless cards as a "game changer", allowing people to self exclude from venues and set daily, weekly and yearly loss limits.

Wesley hopes to begin talks with the Minns government to argue for the introduction of default limits that can be raised if people are able to demonstrate that they can cope with any additional losses.

Mr Minns conceded that the number and volume of losses in NSW - home to about half of all of Australia's poker machines - is a "major problem" but said he was confident in his policy changes.

"We've got to make sure policy changes that we do pursue are consistent with the realities that we are facing," he told reporters on Wednesday.

Wagga Wagga independent MP Joe McGirr, who is guaranteeing confidence and supply for the government in the lower house, says he was "very keen" for the government to move ahead on their pokies reforms and expand the trial on cashless cards.

"It needs to happen promptly and it should focus on how we do it. It's important to ensure this is about a test of the technology," Dr McGirr told AAP.

Polling had shown "pretty clear support" in the electorate for gaming, he said. 

"Even ClubsNSW have a sense the community has moved on this."

The Liquor and Gaming NSW figures show the Fairfield local government area in southwestern Sydney remains a pokies mecca, with one machine for every 55 residents.

Gamers lost $335 million across the area's 36 pubs and clubs, at an average of $76,800 per hour.

In neighbouring Canterbury-Bankstown, where there is one poker machine for every 78 residents, losses totalled $361 million or $82,800 per hour.

A NSW Crime Commission report in 2022 found the machines allow criminals to use large amounts of cash with Commissioner Michael Barnes estimating "many billions" of the $95 billion put through the machines each year were attributed to money laundering.