Quarterly data for the last three months of 2022 reveal that the people of Lismore lost over $4.7 million to poker machines in just 92 days.

The data from Liquor and Gaming NSW revealed that across the 16 premises in the Lismore Local Government Area (LGA), the net loss to users was $4,700,363, or just over $50,000 per day.

It is a fascinating statistic, especially given the data released from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) this week regarding socioeconomic advantage and disadvantage - Lismore scores a 5 in latest ABS stats about socio economic advantage and disadvantage.

Wesley Mission CEO and Superintendent Rev Stu Cameron said this money should have been helping families weather the cost-of-living crisis.

“The pain of broken individuals and families and the harm caused to communities behind these numbers is immense,” he said.

Wesley Mission is one of a number of large organisations calling for new poker machine reform, that includes measures such as cashless gambling.

“Losses of this scale underpin the urgency for sensible, proportionate and effective reform.”

“It is vital now more than ever for the new NSW Government, and the opposition to come together in a genuine bi-partisan approach to enact reforms in this term of Parliament.”

“Wesley Mission sees the devastating 24/7 harm caused by these ubiquitous machines. It really beggars belief that any resistance to real reform could remain.”

The recently elected NSW Labor Government went to the election with a number of gambling reform policies, including a trial of cashless gaming, banning signage such as "VIP Lounge" on venues, and reducing cash feed-in limits for pokies to $500 – down from the current limit of $5,000.

State Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin said she agreed with the current policies and wanted to see more evidence before going further.

“That’s what we as the current Government took to the election and that’s what we will implement,” she said.

“I’ll wait for the trial to finish before seeing if we need to do more.”

“They’ll look at all other information as it comes to light, but what worries me more is online gambling and I’m pleased to see that the Federal Government starting to act on that too.”