Tamworth punters lost $6.7 million on poker machines in the city's clubs in just three months this year, according to new data.
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The extraordinary sum, which has been on the rise since 2020, was won and lost at the same time as the number of machines and clubs went backwards.
Between March 1 and May 31, locals put some $6,714,906.03 through the pokies machines in city clubs, according to Liquor and Gaming NSW stats.
The number of machines has shrunk from 509 at the end of 2020 to just 482 in the latest update.
The ranks of the city's pokies clubs has also shrunk, with one venue giving up electronic gambling.
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The Wests Entertainment Group venue the Wests Leagues Club continues to be the region's most profitable pokies venue, boasting 160 poker machines. It is the 83rd most profitable venue in NSW.
Club CEO Rod Laing said the money earned at pokies is reinvested in the business and "stays within the community".
He said the industry was "heavily audited" and its staff were highly trained to make sure it complied with rules designed to protect addicts.
Without it, Mr Laing said gambling was, generally speaking, a major source of income for most clubs.
"As a general rule it's probably around that 50 per cent and more," he said.
"Some clubs it could be 80 per cent. But it's a large part of your business. At the end of the day you've got to remember, we've got a licence for this. It's much the same as we have a licence for the TAB, to bet on the racehorses and sport."
Mr Laing said Wests had the biggest takings from poker machines simply because it is the region's biggest club.
Wests Entertainment Group venue The Courts is currently closed as a result of a major upgrade.
Mr Laing said the group has made a decision to reopen the East Tamworth tennis club without poker machines in order to focus on "family entertainment".
"[With] the size of both Wests and [Wests] Diggers, we felt that we didn't need a footprint further in East Tamworth," he said.
"With tennis being a family sport, we wanted to basically put our money where our mouth is and see if we could run a satellite club without gaming, just offering cafe meals and beverages."
The business has retained all 18 pokies licences from the club, and do not plan to sell them.
Many Tamworth pubs also have poker machines, but Liquor and Gaming NSW has yet to crunch data for that side of the industry.
The state's clubs earnt more than a billion dollars thanks to poker machines in the three months from March to May.
Gambling NSW statistics show the state's machines earned $1,171,791,195.52 during that period.
The figures represent a net profit, with any winnings by punters subtracted from the overall loss.
Australians are the world's biggest gamblers, losing an average of $1000-a-year per person.
According to Gambling Research Australia - a partnership between the federal and state governments - about one Australian in every hundred is a problem gambler.
The number has doubled since 2019, according to the organisation's latest national report.
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Andrew Messenger
Politics, environment and energy journalist at the Northern Daily Leader. I also write about health, bushfires and occasionally music. I'm a Brisbane boy by way of Charleville and Hobart who now lives in in beautiful New England. Get me at andrew.messenger@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Politics, environment and energy journalist at the Northern Daily Leader. I also write about health, bushfires and occasionally music. I'm a Brisbane boy by way of Charleville and Hobart who now lives in in beautiful New England. Get me at andrew.messenger@austcommunitymedia.com.au
