A Sydney council where more than $8 billion was put through the pokies in a year is calling on the NSW government to consider banning any more machines being approved in clubs and pubs in the area due to the high risk of gambling-related harm.
Fairfield Council, which is ranked as the most disadvantaged area in Sydney, says the prohibition should also apply to all other areas at similar risk.
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Poker machine profits come from poorest suburbs
Surging gaming industry profits are coming from the pockets of those in Sydney's most disadvantaged suburbs.
It says the state government regulator, the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority, should consider capping pokie numbers in all "vulnerable" communities where levels of gambling and machine density are high.
The proposals are contained in a submission to the state government's review of the rules for determining applications by pubs and clubs to introduce extra poker machines to an area, known as the Local Impact Assessment (LIA) process.
"No public good can be achieved within communities with high levels of gambling, such as Fairfield, for any further development of the gaming industry or any additional increases in gaming revenue," says the submission, obtained by Fairfax Media.
According to the most recent publicly available data, $8.27 billion was gambled on pokies during 2015-16 in Fairfield council area out of a total $80 billion put through machines in NSW during that year.
This equates to pokie gambling losses of up to $800 million during that year in Fairfield, which is home to the giant Mounties club.
The submission notes that 18 pubs and 20 clubs operate 3836 poker machines in the Fairfield council area.
This equates to a poker machine density of 24.6 machines per 1000 adults, compared to the NSW average of 15.8, based on 2015 data.
It says Fairfield makes up about 2.6 per cent of the state population, yet in 2015 the area's poker machine profits represented 7.9 per cent of the total for pubs and clubs in NSW.
In 2015, Fairfield provided more than 9 per cent of all tax revenue from poker machines across NSW, according to the submission.
Fairfield slams the LIA process – by which ILGA considers how additional pokies will affect the local community – as "complex, systemically biased in favour of the applicant, lacking in transparency with no requirement for independent, expert analysis".
In a separate submission to the review, the Alliance for Gambling Reform uses Fairfield as an example to argue for introduction of regional caps in the most poker machine "saturated areas".
The alliance also calls for faster reduction of poker machine numbers in NSW.
When machines are sold between separate venues in NSW, one in three must be forfeited to the state in a bid to drive down numbers. But this has seen a reduction in total machines of just 5000 to 95,000 in seven years.
The alliance also wants greater transparency, including the public release of poker machine losses by venue and local government area.
Its NSW spokeswoman, Allison Keogh, noted that in last month's state budget the tax take from pokies is predicted to rise from $1.45 billion in 2016-17 to $1.77 billion in 2020-21.
"We don't push addictive cigarettes to get revenue, so both sides of NSW politics need to break their addiction to pokies revenue and escape the capture of the pokies industry with its dangerous products and influence-pedalling which results in state-sponsored citizen abuse," she said.