there are regular draw downs in the stock and 2022 was a bad year for anything "growth", I doubt it has much to do with cashless gaming in NSW and Tas.
I don't relish problem gambling, but addiction is a fact of life and better to tax addiction to provide some offset to society than engage in prohibitions.
In terms of the cashless system having an impact on problem gambling I am a little skeptical. Most casual players and the vast majority of players will set limits near where they spend now, which would be lowish, and not be impacted.
Where the rubber meets the road though is how it impacts players putting entire pay cheques through the machines.
Clearly these people have an issue and I'd be suprised if methods don't pop up which side step the intentions of the scheme, like large limits, using other people's cards, simply delaying losses to another day etc etc.
It will however make laundering money much harder, but that is not a major earner for the industry despite popular opinion. The major earner is people putting their salaries into machines.
(20min delay)