Synod on Pokies Reform
The Dean’s Correspondence: to the Cathedral’s state MP - 30 September 2025
I again assure you of our prayers for your work in Parliament, especially as Member for Sydney where our Cathedral is located.
I write to advise you of the resolution of the Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney carried earlier in September. The Sydney Anglican Synod has representatives from over 250 parishes and several dozen Anglican Schools, as well as Anglicare, across Sydney, the Illawarra, Shoalhaven, Southern Highlands and Blue Mountains. So it is noteworthy that this resolution passed unanimously.
Poker Machine reform in NSW
Synod –
(a) thanks the Independent Panel on Gambling Reform, comprising industry, harm minimisation, academic, cyber crime, police, and union representatives, for their comprehensive report on Poker Machine gambling in NSW, which was handed down in December 2024, and includes 30 recommendations to reduce harm to individuals, families, and communities caused by this type of gambling,
(b) notes that the NSW State Government has not responded to this report, meaning that it has not taken concrete steps to implement meaningful and effective harm reduction measures regarding poker machine gambling,
(c) notes further that –
(i) $2.3 billion was lost on NSW poker machines in the three months to June 2025, averaging more than $1 million lost each hour, an increase of 8.8% compared to the same period last year,
(ii) analysis by Wesley Mission showed that 141 new poker machines were turned on in NSW since March this year, despite the NSW Government saying it was reducing the number of machines in the State,
(iii) the 2025/26 state budget forecasts that tax revenue from poker machines in hotels will rise by 7.2% per annum until the end of the 2028/29 financial year,
(iv) there is a disproportionate concentration of poker machines in lower socioeconomic areas of NSW, where they cause more harm,
(v) research continues to show that gambling addiction is strongly linked to homelessness, suicide, domestic violence, organised crime, family breakdown, and negative health and social outcomes for Indigenous and other Australians,
(d) once again calls on the NSW State Government to work diligently towards implementing effective harm minimisation methods for poker machines, such as $1 bet limits, longer compulsory machine shut downs from midnight to 10am, and a universal cashless gaming card with mandatory limit-setting, in order to reduce the misery caused by gambling harm and to address money-laundering in our state,
(e) notes an invitation from the Reverend Stu Cameron, Chief Executive Officer and Superintendent of Wesley Mission, our host at Synod, inviting churches to consider praying for gambling reform in their assemblies on Sunday October 19, the day before GambleAware week commences in NSW,
(f) requests the Archbishop to convey the content of this motion to the NSW Premier and Leader of the Opposition,
(g) encourages all concerned rectors and church members to write to their local State MPs, urging them to advocate actively for their communities, privately and publicly, and for the implementation of effective harm minimisation methods for gambling harm, especially for poker machines, and
(h) gives thanks to God for the unity of this Synod in grieving the harm caused by the cost of the gambling crisis in NSW, and earnestly prays that God will sovereignly work to reduce this harm.
We know that you have been a strong advocate for meaningful gambling harm reform in NSW. And I thank you for that.
But the pressure seems to have come off the Minns Government.
As a pastor, who has been involved in gambling-harm reform for 15 years now, I am sick and tired of talking to those impacted by gambling harm… suicidal young men, families with their furniture being repossessed, shame-ridden debt-laden ordinary people from all strata of society, who have been hooked by predatory tactics, especially by online gambling and poker machines.
I can assure you that ministers and members of Anglican Churches across Sydney are contacting their MPs, and especially urging Labor MPs in lower socioeconomic areas to agitate for an improved response on poker machines from the Minns Government, whether publicly or in caucus. (We are also raising the matter of sports bet reform with your colleagues in the federal parliament.)
I would appreciate your renewed vigour in advocacy in the NSW Parliament, both publicly and by private conversation, for the cause of poker machine reform, as I am sure it will assist in this long battle for compassionate care and protection of the needy in our state.
Yours sincerely,
Sandy Grant
Dean of Sydney
