The Government will work closely with venues to ensure an ordered transition.  WHAT HS NSW GOVT DONE SINCE 1 DEC 2025 TO REPEAL SOME POKER MACHINE OPERATING HOURS"

Under law, NSW venues must shut down all gaming machines between 4am to 10am each day of the week.  

The six-hour shutdown is a harm minimisation measure intended to provide players with an important break in play, so patrons go home, get ‘out of the zone’ and reflect upon their behaviour.

A 2023 report - The Impact of electronic gaming machine (EGM) late night play on EGM player behaviour - showed 70.5% of EGM gamblers between 4am and 10am are classified as high risk or moderate risk gamblers.

More than 670 venues have a varied shutdown period for a variety of reasons, including being in high traffic ‘tourist’ locations, history of earlier opening hours and experiencing financial hardship, with many of the variations in place for more than 20 years.

A Review of Gaming Machine Shutdown Hours conducted by Liquor & Gaming NSW in 2024 found that a minimum 6-hour shutdown period, commencing no later than 4am, is effective at minimising gambling harm.

The review found no evidence to justify changing the start time or extending the length of the shutdown hours.

L&GNSW’s findings were referred to the Independent Panel for Gaming Reform.

In its Roadmap for Gaming Reform published late last year, the Independent Panel recommended all existing variations to the minimum 6-hour shutdown period be repealed to allow for a uniform shutdown period, with a transition period for venues.

Minister Harris has acted on the review’s findings and Independent Panel’s recommendation to repeal the variations.

For venues that believe they have a strong case for an exemption under the legislation and the revised Ministerial Guidelines, they will have the opportunity to respond to Liquor and Gaming NSW to put their case forward to justify their eligibility for a continued variation.

Any application for continued exemptions will need to meet new tougher guidelines and will be subject to a decision by the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority.

The move continues an array of gaming reforms the Government has implemented since coming into office, including:

• Reducing the cash input limit from $5,000 to $500 for all new gaming machines
• Reducing the state-wide cap on gaming machine entitlements, so that every year the number of gaming machines reduces based on forfeiture rates
• Banning political donations from clubs with electronic gaming machines
• Banning external gaming-related signage and internal gaming-related signage that can be seen from outside the venue
• Introducing Responsible Gambling Officers in venues with more than 20 gaming machine entitlements
• Mandating that all venues with gaming machines must keep a -
  *    Gaming Plan of Management; and
  *    Gambling Incident Register
• Banning gambling advertising on public transport and the ferries and terminals people catch it from 
• Consulting with the community on a third-party exclusion scheme and use of mandatory facial recognition technology to support a statewide exclusion register for NSW hotels and clubs with gaming machines.

Minister for Gaming and Racing David Harris said: