Liquor & Gaming NSW has published its latest gaming machine data updates, which detail the gaming machine numbers and net profit for each NSW local government area as well as the net profit rankings for all NSW venues with gaming machines.
LGNSW publishes the data every six months which it says is “part of the NSW Government’s commitment to boost transparency on gambling activity in local communities”.
The latest reports cover 1 December 2018 to 31 May 2019 for clubs and 1 January 2019 to 30 June 2019 for hotels. LGNSW said that “due to seasonal factors, gaming machine profits are historically higher in the second half of each calendar year”.
For this period the most profitable hotel in NSW was Markets Hotel in Flemington, while the most profitable club was Mount Pritchard & District Community Club (trading as Mounties).
Top 10 gaming machine net profit hotels in NSW:
- Markets Hotel, Flemington
- Cross Roads Hotel, Casula
- El Cortez Hotel, Canley Heights
- Meridian Hotel, Hurstville
- Railway Hotel, Lidcombe
- The Crown Hotel, Revesby
- Berala Hotel, Berala
- Burwood Hotel, Burwood
- Pritchards Hotel, Mount Pritchard
- Twin Willows Hotel, Bass Hill
Top 10 gaming machine net profit clubs in NSW:
- Mt Pritchard & District Community Club Limited (Trading as Mounties)
- Bankstown Sports Club
- Dooleys Lidcombe Catholic Club
- Canterbury League Club Ltd
- Cabra-Vale Ex-Active Servicemen’s Club Ltd
- Rooty Hill RSL Club Ltd
- Wentworthville Leagues Club Ltd
- Revesby Workers’ Club Ltd
- Parramatta Leagues Club
- Liverpool Catholic Club
The updates also details profitability and tax income for each local government area in NSW, and the number of gaming machines in each area. This information is again broken down by clubs and hotels.
The 10 highest hotel gaming machine LGAs in NSW
| LGA | Net Profit | Tax | Number of machines | Number of premises |
| Sydney | $145,306,185.94 | $46,032,875.37 | 3,138 | 170 |
| Canterbury-Bankstown | $104,840,915.09 | $40,736,393.33 | 888 | 32 |
| Fairfield | $71,358,574.85 | $28,794,759.23 | 507 | 19 |
| Cumberland | $70,713,039.08 | $28,379,511.47 | 507 | 19 |
| Blacktown | $60,421,393.87 | $21,716,182.12 | 723 | 26 |
| Parramatta | $46,800,014.26 | $16,885,476.06 | 553 | 20 |
| Georges River | $41,420,112.37 | $15,495,110.68 | 424 | 15 |
| Inner West | $40,464,674.82 | $12,933,634.62 | 909 | 54 |
| Bayside | $38,347,660.15 | $14,174,366.02 | 437 | 17 |
| Burwood/Strathfield | $37,209,756.48 | $15,121,381.84 | 275 | 10 |
The 10 highest club gaming machine LGAs in NSW
| LGA | Net Profit | Tax | Number of machines | Number of premises |
| Fairfield | $179,663,286.41 | $42,527,494.88 | 3,350 | 19 |
| Canterbury-Bankstown | $175,169,930.30 | $40,402,700.37 | 4,179 | 33 |
| Cumberland | $110,851,538.78 | $26,083,979.83 | 2,226 | 14 |
| Central Coast | $103,705,545.15 | $19,409,246.64 | 3,990 | 39 |
| Blacktown | $76,538,874.24 | $17,508,917.45 | 2,115 | 12 |
| Penrith | $59,985,149.46 | $12,836,402.17 | 2,124 | 16 |
| Wollongong | $58,331,622.36 | $10,124,437.14 | 2,463 | 37 |
| Georges River | $56,465,055.69 | $11,838,497.86 | 1,540 | 14 |
| Campbelltown | $53,635,256.95 | $12,144,222.15 | 1,598 | 9 |
| Newcastle | $49,476,037.21 | $9,758,134.44 | 2,113 | 31 |
LGNSW has also detailed some of the key numbers over the period, in particular how they compare with the same period last year and with the previous six month reporting period.
Compared to the previous six months, LGNSW said that the number of gaming machines in operation fell by 206 in clubs and by 39 in hotels. The number pf club gaming venues fell by nine, and the number of hotel gaming venues fell by 34. In addition LGNSW said that in this period, compared with the previous six-month period net profit in clubs fell by 3.9 per cent and by 6.3 per cent for hotels.
Additionally compared with the same six-month period in 2018 the number of gaming machines in operation fell by 506 in clubs and by 42 in hotels. LGNSW also reported that the number of club gaming venues fell by 16, and the number of hotel gaming venues fell by 74. In terms of net profit in comparison with the same six-month period in 2018, for clubs this fell by 0.03 per cent, while hotels saw a 6.2 per cent increase in net profit.
LGNSW has moved to reporting net profit for machines, rather than turnover as it said “turnover has commonly been misinterpreted and led to wrong assumptions about levels of gaming machine loss”.
Net profit is the combined profit from gaming machines for all venues within an LGA. It is not exactly the same as player losses because some larger jackpots are ‘pooled’ when machines are linked across multiple venues and LGAs.
The data has included LGA based yearly statistics for the number of gaming machines and the total value of bets on gaming machines. However, it is the closest indicator of how much communities have lost on gaming machines.
Turnover refers to the total value of bets on gaming machines, including bets made using credits won during the course of play. It is simply the amount of money bet, regardless of whether that money is won or lost.
In NSW, gaming machines must return at least 85 per cent of turnover over the playing out of their full course of combinations, with the average return of all gaming machines being about 90 per cent.