Shocking price Illawarra punters pay for playing pokies

For more than three decades, Community Industry Group has stood alongside organisations, families and community leaders advocating against gambling harm. But we want to be clear, while poker machine losses are often reported as staggering dollar figures, the real story is not about money. It is about people.

Recent data published by Wesley Mission shows that Wollongong residents are losing more than $240 million a year on poker machines, making our region one of the worst affected in regional NSW. Losses have continued to climb, with more than $54 million lost in the first three months of 2026 alone.

But we must remember that behind every statistic is a family budget stretched beyond breaking point, a parent unable to pay household bills, a child going to school on an empty stomach, an older person facing financial insecurity, or someone experiencing loneliness, stress or poor mental health who turns to gambling only to find themselves trapped in a cycle of loss.

In the Illawarra, we pride ourselves on being a community that looks after its own. We rally around neighbours during bushfires, support local charities, volunteer in our sporting clubs and help those doing it tough. Yet every year, hundreds of millions of dollars are quietly extracted from our community through poker machines, often from people least able to afford the losses.

Community organisations see the consequences every day. We see increased demand for emergency relief, housing support, financial counselling, family services and mental health assistance. Gambling harm rarely exists in isolation. It compounds existing disadvantage and deepens vulnerability. The costs are borne not just by the individual gambler, but by partners, children, friends and the broader community.

This is why gambling reform should not be viewed as an attack on clubs or pubs. It is a public health and social justice issue.

Measures such as statewide self-exclusion programs, account-based gambling, greater transparency around poker machine losses and sensible restrictions on operating hours are practical safeguards that can reduce harm. They are not radical proposals. They are common-sense protections for people and communities.

Seventy years after poker machines were legalised in NSW, communities are still paying the price. The question is not whether gambling harm exists. We know it does. The question is whether we have the courage to act.

The Illawarra deserves a future where community wellbeing matters more than gambling revenue. For the sake of our families, our neighbours and the most vulnerable members of our community, that future cannot wait any longer.

It is time we put pokies in their place.

October 19-25 is Gambling Harm Awareness Week.