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NSW gamers have lost $4.3 billion to the state's 86,000 poker machines in a six-month period as politicians debate reform for the lucrative gaming sector.
The latest official half-yearly data shows 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, coincides with the political debate to overhaul the system in the wake of a damning report on money laundering.
The report prompted former premier Dominic Perrottet to release a proposal for a statewide mandatory cashless gaming card and harm minimisation measures, winning support from key crossbenchers.
Labor's Chris Minns, who beat Mr Perrottet at the March election, instead promised a cashless card trial on 500 machines and a plan to slash the number of machines statewide.
The Liquor and Gaming NSW figures shows 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.
NSW is home to about half of all of Australia's poker machines.
A NSW Crime Commission report in 2022 found the machines are one of the last safe havens for criminals by allowing them to use large amounts of cash.
Commissioner Michael Barnes said the scale of money-laundering carried out through the machines was impossible to determine due to the lack of traceable data but it involves "many billions" of the $95 billion put through the machines each year.
Despite the extent of ill-gotten gains, laundering through pokies was inefficient and not widespread, the commission found.
