What good is a budget surplus that’s built on despair?

June 29, 2026 — 5:00am

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The state budget handed down last week could be called many things. Restrained, responsible and a tad mundane for a pre-election spending blueprint despite shelling out for some rego relief, an Opal fare freeze and Treasurer Daniel Mookhey squirrelling away a spare $1.1 billion for unexpected expenses.

But the budget certainly could not be called anti-gambling or anti-pokies. As state political reporter Max Maddison discovered, an increase in revenue from the tax on gambling machines and the addictions that fuel them is helping prop up the budget as it eyes an eventual return to surplus.

Revenue from pokies in hotels – home........

© The Sydney Morning Herald