New South Wales will make facial recognition mandatory at the entrance of gaming rooms across the state, tying the technology to a new register that lets a person bar themselves from every hotel and club with poker machines at once.
The requirement arrives in 2028 alongside the NSW State Exclusion Register, and the two are designed to work together. Under the present arrangement a person can sign a voluntary self-exclusion agreement covering the gaming area or the whole of a particular venue, and enforcement falls largely to individual venues and their staff to monitor. The register replaces that with a single statewide framework, and the face check at the door is what carries an exclusion from one venue to the next. The government said the system will also support police work on the use of gaming machines for money laundering and other criminal activity.
The state already has rules for how venues run the technology, having published a facial recognition code of practice for gaming venues earlier this year, and some operators moved ahead of any mandate: Sydney pubs began deploying facial recognition to block self-excluded gamblers in 2024.
A third-party exclusion scheme in hotels and clubs will run alongside the register, giving families a route to intervene. The wider package raises the forfeiture rate when gaming machine entitlements are traded from one in three to one in two, adds a sinking cap so the statewide total falls as entitlements leave circulation, and tightens exemptions that allowed transfers without forfeiture. New South Wales has around 87,000 poker machines across some 2,100 clubs and hotels.
The government will also upgrade the Centralised Monitoring System over the next two years to lay the groundwork for account-based play, in which a registered account replaces anonymous play at the machine. VIP programs tied to gaming will end, gambling advertising will be banned on state and council-owned assets, and operators will not be able to market directly to people by call, email or text without prior express consent.
“These are common sense reforms that have been developed alongside industry, harm minimisation groups, stakeholders and privacy experts to address gambling harm while supporting the industry and protecting the livelihoods of the many people it employs,” said Minister for Gaming and Racing David Harris. The package draws A$95.2 million over four years from the remaining gambling harm minimisation fund and higher licence fees.
Sources: NSW Government
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By Cass Kennedy
