‘Death by 1000 cuts in Canberra’: pokies battle crosses into NSW

Just before the pandemic (when the last figures were published by the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission), the four Vikings clubs had 540 gaming machines. Their patrons lost $17,070,137 to them. In the last financial year (2022-23), those losses by patrons rose to $24,350,687 despite the ACT government’s policy of cutting the number of poker machines to reduce “gambling harm” when people become addicted to pokies.