Rare bright spot in an area dogged by lobbying and political backflips

March 25, 2026 — 5:30am

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It’s 6.15am in one of Sydney’s biggest clubs, and a young mother of two is sitting alone, exhausted and terrified over how much cash she has just blown on the flashing machine in front of her. She will never see that money again – nor the $5000 she also spent the night before while the rest of the city slept.

This scenario, in which thousands of addicts squander millions of dollars between 4am and 10am when poker machines are meant to be switched off, will finally end next week when at least 659 pubs and clubs are stripped of their sweetheart deals to extend gaming into the early hours.

The move is a rare bright spot in an area of reform dogged by fierce lobbying, false starts and political backflips, and it gives the Minns government something good to clutch on to days after new data revealed........

© The Sydney Morning Herald