NRL star Nathan Hindmarsh talks about his poker machine addiction

Pokie profits in NSW are more than a quarter of a billion dollars for the top 25 pubs, but the community is asking at what cost? Picture: News CorpSource:News Limited

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TALK about hitting the jackpot.

NSW’s top 25 pokie pubs, all based in the greater Sydney region, raked in nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in profit in the past financial year, it has been revealed.

Liquor and Gaming NSW published the list of the state’s top 25 earners, with the El Cortez Hotel in Fairfield sitting in top place.

But there are warnings that the “mega profits” have come at significant community cost.

Thirteen of the 25 hotels are in the Fairfield and Canterbury/Bankstown region.

Fairfield, the city’s most disadvantaged area, demanded a freeze on new machines in clubs and pubs in at-risk communities in a submission to the state government.

The 25 hotels made a total of $253 million in poker machine profit during 2016/17, according to NSW Greens MP Justin Field.

The NSW government anticipates raising more than $100 million in tax from the top 25 hotels, Fairfax Media reports.

Mr Field says the hotels’ “mega profits” cause immeasurable harm to families and communities.

“Pokies are highly addictive products,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

“(There are) powerful lobby groups pushing in their favour and covering up their true impacts.” The Greens MP is urging the state government to protect the vulnerable and wants the government to consider $1 bet limits along with an acceleration in the overall reduction in the number of poker machines in NSW.

Fairfield City Mayor Frank Carbone in July called on the NSW government to stop investing in poker machines in his community.

Poker machine, gaming, gambling. Generic Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

Today, he again urged the NSW government to protect vulnerable members of his community.

Mr Carbone said while Fairfield is home to 2.6 per cent of NSW’s population it houses four per cent of the state’s poker machines and contributes nine per cent of tax revenue from pokies.

All this while suffering from unemployment rates double the state’s average, the mayor said.

“We urge the state government to correct the imbalance of tax revenue received from Fairfield City and to invest it back into the local community through the creation of jobs and infrastructure.”

ADDICTIVE PROFITS

NSW has half of Australia’s gaming machines and 10 per cent of the total worldwide, with about 95,000 machines across the state.

Players can feed in as much as $7000 into just one machine.

About $8.27 billion was gambled on pokies in Fairfield alone, and $80 billion played across NSW in 2015-16.

That’s around 55 per cent of the national total gambled on poker machines, which was $135.7 billion in 2014-15.

About 85 per cent of what punters gamble is paid out in winnings, but that still leaves a not insignificant $6 billion in revenue for clubs and venues in NSW alone.

State governments claim around 25 per cent tax on the machines’ earnings.

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In Western Australia, pokies are restricted to casinos only.

In July, the Victorian Government froze the number of pokies in that state until 2042 as part of a suite of reforms.

Australia has the highest gambling losses per capita worldwide, dwarfing casino hub Singapore. An analysis by The Economist early this year revealed Australians lost more per person than any other nation in 2016 — a massive $1292, averaged out across the population, not just gamblers ($11.6 billion in total).

The reason? Pokies. Losses from the gaming machines found in pubs and clubs across the nation were bigger than the total per capita gambling losses of nearly every other country — largely because of Australia’s permissive bet limit rules, which allow punters to lose up to $1498 an hour.

REFORM CONSIDERED

NSW Racing Minister Paul Toole, who oversees Liquor and Gaming NSW, said the government is considering reforms to the scheme which examines the impact of gaming on communities and strategies to address negative impacts. “The government will be considering all the evidence during this process, not just numbers cherrypicked by the Greens,” he told AAP.

Meanwhile, new federal welfare measures announced on Tuesday — which are designed to stop job seekers spending taxpayer dollars on drugs — are to be trialled in neighbouring Canterbury-Bankstown.

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They could lead to less money being pumped into the pokies, the federal government argues.

Anyone who tests positive for certain illicit drugs will have 80 per cent of their dole payment quarantined in a cashless welfare card.

“We hope (the final 20 per cent) is still used for the intent of which welfare was provided — rather than used at the pokies,” Social Services Minister Christian Porter told reporters

Mr Porter said a similar cashless welfare card trial at Ceduna in South Australia led to a dramatic reduction in the local club’s poker machine revenue.

SYDNEY’S TOP FIVE POKIE PUBS

1 — El Cortez Hotel, Canley Heights

2 — Railway Hotel, Lidcombe

3 — Markets Hotel, Flemington

4 — Eastwood Hotel, Eastwood

5 — Cross Roads Hotel, Casula