Sydney’s casinos given more breathing room on moving to cashless gaming

Sydney’s two casinos have been given a reprieve from the full impact of cashless gaming, with the NSW government delaying plans to restrict the use of cash on the gaming floors of the Star and Crown until 2027.

The delay will help avoid the possible loss of thousands of jobs and provide the under-pressure casino operators with financial relief.

Punters at Star Entertainment’s Sydney casino and Crown Resorts in Barangaroo can gamble up to $5000 in cash every day, but that was due to fall to a daily $1000 cash limit on August 19.

However, Star and Crown requested a delay to the limits over concerns it could drive out customers.

A spokesman for Gaming Minister David Harris said the government has granted requests from the casinos to “continue transitional arrangements for reduced daily cash limits” until August 19, 2027.

“The continuation of this arrangement was approved in recognition of several factors, including the effectiveness of other financial crime measures, particularly mandatory carded play and improved customer risk assessment processes aimed at preventing money laundering, along with concerns by casino operators about potential employment impacts,” the spokesman said.

The spokesman said the “transitional arrangements may be revoked at any time during the two-year period”.

Under the NSW Casino Control Act, customers at Crown and The Star will eventually be limited to loading $1000 cash per day onto their respective carded systems before gambling. This limit will only apply to cash transactions.

The new limits were due to start in August 2024, but the casino operators requested an extension, which was granted. A second extension has now been granted.

The transition to cashless gaming is expensive for both cash-strapped casino businesses but is considerably more complicated for The Star, which has to refit 1500 poker machines.

Mandated carded play has not been imposed on the state’s pubs and clubs, which operate 98 per cent of poker machines in NSW. Blackstone-owned Crown Resorts does not have any poker machines in the state due to The Star’s exclusivity arrangement.

The decision comes less than a week after the financial crime watchdog warned that illicit activity is shifting from the casinos to pubs and clubs, and launched civil proceedings against the most profitable club group in NSW for “serious and systemic” non-compliance with anti-money laundering laws.

AUSTRAC, the regulator of currency exchange services, announced last Wednesday that civil penalty proceedings would be commenced against Mount Pritchard District and Community Club, also known as Mounties, over allegations the club failed to appropriately manage the risk of money laundering through its venues.

The proceedings against Mounties, one of the largest club groups in Australia, represent the first salvo in the regulator’s promised crackdown on the criminal exploitation of gambling in pubs and clubs.

With Harriet Alexander

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